


december 21, 2020

by Jupiter_the_Firefox



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Camping, Drinking, Hand Jobs, Im just gonna keep adding tags as I go, M/M, Minecraft, Mountains, Mutual Pining, Oral Sex, Outdoor Sex, POV Third Person, Pining, Sapnap's POV, Semi-Public Sex, Slow Burn, Stargazing, Wilderness, mountains and shit, no beta we fall like satan, no covid in this world babie, our boys are all going to be useless simps for each other idk and idc, simping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:54:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28870410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jupiter_the_Firefox/pseuds/Jupiter_the_Firefox
Summary: Sapnap and Dream take a trip into the Colorado wilderness to experience the Great Conjunction, the illusion of the stars Jupiter and Saturn joining in the sky to create the Star of Bethlehem. The last time this happened was about eight-hundred years ago. While on the trek up the strange trails to the mountain, they run into another pair of friends, George and Karl, who also have the same idea. The two unlikely groups decide to join up and finish the journey together. Along the way, feelings develop between the group as the night of the twenty-first approaches. Sapnap in particular has had a tough time of it this year, and this may just be the break he needs. (COVID-19 does not exist in this 2020 lol.)
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 18
Kudos: 166





	1. december 17, 2020

**Author's Note:**

  * For [electricfenceofdoom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/electricfenceofdoom/gifts).



> Hey guys, thanks for taking the time to stop and read my fic!! I really appreciate kudos and comments, and I really hope to have it in me to finish this one. I have the timeline roughly plotted out and the will to write is alive right now!  
> If you want to add to the experience, listen to this wonderful song by Sleeping at Last. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCNKnfR0-uc I was inspired to write because I remember this night fondly myself, and I just hope I can spread as much happiness around as I can during these tough times. <3

The fire in front of him crackled softly, and the small embers flaked off into the air and up to the sky. For a brief moment he couldn’t tell the burning ash from the stars until they flickered out and floated back down, vanishing into the surrounding darkness of the woods. Out in the distance loomed a tall mountain range, endlessly stretching into the horizon beyond. They were due to hit the base of it by dusk tomorrow if they played their cards right- if Dream actually got up on time, that is.

A soft, fond scoff escaped his lips as he thought of his best friend. It had been his idea, really, to go on this camping trip in the Colorado wilderness. It had been an unusually sunny December, and what better way to escape the grossly unfair wintertime warmth of the Floridian heat than by going to the land of snow itself? Dream had proclaimed over and over again that he would be fine in the snow, and he really wanted to see it for the first time where it wouldn’t just be a dirty slush or a dusting that melted once the sun rose. He himself wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with it, but back in Texas, he hadn’t exactly been as exposed as some of the states further up north.

The burning logs shifted on the fire and sent more embers flying up, and he lazily reached to his left and grabbed another log. He tensed his shoulders as he held it in his hands and then with a precise shove, threw it into the flames. There was something pretty about watching it spit out bright ashes like sparks into the space over his head. They had only set on the trail about two days prior, laden with ridiculously large backpacks and cheery smiles. It had been like this every time the sun set the past couple nights, with him gazing at the flames and watching them lick up the wood until his eyes grew too heavy to keep forced open anymore.

It was getting close to that time. Sleep was slowly wearing on his shoulders and his head drooped a bit, the lulling heat of the fire drawing him to rest his chin on his knees and wrap his arms around his legs. His own tent was standing quietly several feet to the left, he’d set it up at the same time as Dream earlier that day when dusk was setting in. With a resolute sigh, he reluctantly broke his linked fingers and pushed himself up to his feet. He halfheartedly kicked some dirt over the fire to let it smolder out and then turned to go into his tent. The sleeping bag was rumpled from being lazily rolled out in his haste to start the fire before it got dark. He let out a soft exhale as he leaned down and shook it out, smoothing over the worst of the folds until he could undo the zipper in one fluid motion and settle into it. The cold ground beneath him was hard but he’d accepted his fate, he just had to get used to it. There were ten more days left on this trip, and he was nearly buzzing with excitement for the night in four days. The Great Conjunction, the whole reason that they were here (aside from Dream’s stupid desire to romp around in the snow; he just couldn’t be content unless he went all out.)

It was supposedly a huge astrological event, one that hadn’t occurred in about eight hundred years. The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn were going to be so close in the sky that they would appear to almost kiss, and it was going to be one of the most beautiful and historic things that he’d ever have the privilege to witness. In between the crazy clash of working, school, and just trying to live, it was nice to be able to step back and breathe. When he had first heard of the upcoming conjunction, Dream had been the one to suggest coming initially once it was casually tossed into conversation over dinner.

_“Why don’t we just take a trip to see it?” Dream asked through a mouthful of food, and his friend made a slight face._

_“Please, finish chewing before speaking to me. And this isn’t going to happen for about four months.”_

_“We’ll be on Christmas break though. Oh, excuse me, holiday break. Come on, how often does this happen? You said it hasn’t happened in, like, eight centuries! When will we have a chance like this again?” Dream ignored the remark about swallowing his mouthful and pointedly tapped the end of his fork against the table._

_“I just- I don’t know, where would we go? Can we save up enough money in that time? Can we weasel out of spending Christmas with our families?” His shorter friend asked hesitantly, pushing around a small bite of food on his plate. He was far less enthusiastic about it than Dream._

_The older student finally finished eating and leaned back in his chair, running a large hand through wispy blonde hair. “I’m sure we’ll think of something. I bet we could go to, like, Colorado and fly back before the holidays are up.” He picked up his plate and pushed back the chair. “Come on Sapnap, live a little. We could use a bro’s trip anyways, we haven’t gotten out since you graduated high school!”_

_He stifled a sigh and stood as well, his appetite diminishing. “I’ll think about it, okay?”_

And now here they were, four months after that August night a week into school beginning. Dream was technically a grade ahead of him, and he remembered that summer of his own graduation fondly. He and Dream and a few other guys had packed up and traveled by train across America, visiting landmarks and just being stupid dudes together. The other friends had flaked off when they returned home one by one between different lives and colleges, but it had always been Sapnap and Dream. They’d survived many friend groups together, and were friends for life.

Sapnap tucked his arm under his head, between his cheek and the pillow in an attempt to get more cushioning fitted beneath himself and the ground. How Dream slept so soundly he’d never know. The guy was ridiculous, but he was his best friend, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. They’d gotten into their fair share of scrapes and fights over the years but they always came back to each other time and time again. They’d confessed secrets and knew one another like the back of their hands. Sometimes Sapnap felt like he knew Dream better than he knew himself, and vice versa too. He smiled into his arm as he thought of his friend warmly and closed his eyes, but sleep was still pretty far away. The comforting hold of drowsiness that had hung over him when he sat by the fire had been chased off by the cold and he had to attempt to cozy up under the sleeping bag to uselessly try and reclaim that feeling. He missed his own bed, admittedly, and he wasn’t looking forward to the coming days when they hit the snow and hard rocks of the mountains. It was all going to be worth it though, when he and Dream witnessed the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.

The odds of the astrological occurrence were so slim, and Sapnap gazed quietly into the dark corner of his tent as he thought mindlessly. He was glad that, at the end of the day, Dream had convinced him to go on the trip. They needed this, he needed this. Everything had slowly been accumulating and suffocating over the past few years. The intensity of needing to do well in college was stifling. His entire future rested upon that, and that was heavy. He was thousands of dollars in debt and even though he had a part-time work/study in the library, he knew it would be years before he was free of the crushing loan. How Dream could be so happy and carefree all the time, he had no idea. Maybe it was because he was riding a sports scholarship, and he didn’t have the same stress that Sapnap did as a computer major. More specifically, he was getting into video game designing. He knew that the competition in the football world was fierce, but Dream was literally _built_ for this. The guy was tall, ridiculously so, and built like a freight train. He could ram into people with no problem, shoving past and through with ease. His number was the one that people in the stands wore. He was the one that everyone liked, and Sapnap had always been sort of jealous of that. All the friends he’d had he only knew _through_ Dream. Whenever they went to frat parties he was always sort of left hanging onto the coattails and just waiting around for Dream to finish getting drunk and then he’d drag his ass back home.

Sapnap just needed to breathe, sometimes, independently of Dream. Maybe that was why he liked staying up well into the night when his best friend had fallen asleep.

A sudden breeze kicked up and rustled through the evergreen trees. Sapnap closed his eyes and listened, trying to just forget about everything back home. That was the reason they’d come here, to witness the conjunction of the planets and just leave it all behind for two weeks. That was why _he’d_ come, anyways. The frozen pines whispered words in an ancient tongue that felt somehow more mystical out here in Colorado than the fanned palm leaves of Florida. This land felt far more alive despite being desolate of the human touch. Maybe that was why. There was no hustle and bustle of a city, no feral strangers or stress of the mindless day in and day out. Sapnap wanted one goal on his mind, and one focus only: to climb the peak of the tallest mountain and watch Jupiter and Saturn kiss in the sky. They still had four days to go. A million things could happen between now and then.

The wind gradually died outside of the tent and the silence took hold once again. Sapnap was consumed entirely by his thoughts now, a constant buzz of anxiety that kept his shoulders tense twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. He could proclaim to have left it all in Florida, but a plane ride and a few days in the woods wouldn’t cure it, and deep down he knew that. He just didn’t want to admit it. There was a heavy emotion settling in his gut, a feeling that he just couldn’t quite put his finger on. It wasn’t negative. It wasn’t scary. It was...foreboding, but without the bad connotations attached to the word. It had been looming since they had finalized the dates back in October. His instincts were calling to him, but he just couldn’t make out what they were saying. Sapnap exhaled into his sleeping bag and shook his head slightly. The much-anticipated trip was finally happening. He’d been marking days off of his calendar with a steady, constant ‘x’s while crossing out assignments. The time had dragged on at first, in August, but as the time had approached, it seemed to get increasingly faster. Now he was here. His eyes opened once more as the insomnia plagued his exhausted mind and he sat upright. It had only been about fifteen minutes, but it felt like hours had passed since he’d first laid down. Sapnap rested his forehead against his palm and then stretched his arms out in front of himself as he reached for the tent flaps. If he couldn’t sleep, he could wonder.

The stars twinkled merrily overhead, already more than he’d ever seen in his life and they weren’t even up the mountains yet. He swore he could see the galaxies when he squinted, and he found himself wishing he’d taken up an astronomy class or two just to understand the constellations that were dancing in the sky. The thick trees blocked a lot of the view, but from the section of the night that he could see, it was breathtaking. It was quiet.

It was lonely.

Sapnap felt a soft frown settle on his lips as he laid on his stomach, tugging the pillow beneath his elbows to watch the night sky spin. He could recognize the Big Dipper, the bright stars illuminating the pan’s pattern against the darkness. He wasn’t sure how much he bought into all of that astrology stuff with the star signs. It was about as far-fetched as tarot cards and crystal balls to him. If he got a fortune cookie, he’d read the slip of paper while crunching at the bleak sweetness and laugh at the silly, generic phrase on it. He’d read the word on the other side, glance over the lucky numbers, and then toss it away with the receipt on his way out the door. He vaguely remembered the last time he and Dream had gone to a Chinese buffet. It had been late at night after a football game, and they were celebrating a win with the team. The poor staff had to scramble to push out dishes to feed a dozen and a half hungry college boys near closing time. He’d felt bad and only taken one plate, and when the check came sixteen ways, he took his plastic-wrapped cookie and absently broke it apart. The series of mindless numbers had been lost on him, except for twenty-one.

Twenty-one had always had a weird significance for Sapnap. As a kid he’d had a strange obsession with it. He would set up twenty-one army guys and he would always demand that number of candles on his cake no matter how many years old he turned. He met Dream on the twenty-first of August on the first day of sixth grade when they initially became friends, and he’d grown to love the band Twenty-One Pilots like all the other kids when they made it big alongside Panic! at the Disco and My Chemical Romance, sort of in that era. The former band had always stood out to him the most, though. His twenty-first birthday had been a total blast, between drinking (legally) for the first time and having all of his favorite people together for the day during spring break back in April. And now, this day of the wondrous conjunction of the planets was falling on December twenty-first.

Was it a coincidence that this number just kept popping back up into his life? Sapnap wasn’t so sure. He’d always noticed the little times he saw it too, though he wasn’t sure if he was just seeing it because he paid attention or if it actually was significant. Once when he’d filled up his car with gas the total had been $21.21, and whenever he and Dream would play Madden or whatever stupid sports game they had for their console, he’d make a joke whenever Sapnap scored twenty-one points. Dream knew about his odd relationship with the number, and he thought it was funny.

A soft beeping came from his wristwatch. Sapnap glanced down and blinked in surprise. The watch was put to military time, and his little alarm he always had set was going off. _‘21:21’_. He turned off the gentle noise and just gazed at the digital black numbers against the pale green backlight until the minutes had ticked to 22. He tilted his face up towards the sky and rested his hand flat on the cold earth before him outside of the tent. He didn’t have the answers. Maybe, though, when the twenty-first of December came, he would. A gentle breeze stirred the dead leaves tucked under the evergreen tree across from the fire, probably blown up from the lower altitudes. The crisp brown leaves were illuminated by the dying fire’s glow and Sapnap slowly sank down, down, until his chin was on the back of his hands and his eyes were slipping closed. The warm heat of the flames could reach him here and he sighed as he began to finally drift off, the vision of swirling stars and a bright illumination fixed in the sky behind his darkened gaze. Four more days.


	2. december 18, 2020

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a startling wake-up, Sapnap and Dream invite Karl and George to come along their trip with them. The goal is to reach the base of the mountains by nightfall, and there's nothing better to do than converse to pass the time.

Sapnap should have expected Dream to sleep well into the morning, and it honestly shouldn’t have come as a surprise to him when he did the same. He’d been up until God knew when last night, just thinking and watching the fire slowly die. When his gaze hazily refocused on the world as he woke, he could see the dying embers dancing beneath the blackened logs. There was only a thin stream of smoke that lifted from the coals. But it wasn’t the heat that woke him, or the smell. It was a soft shushing sound.

Sapnap shut his eyes again and grumbled meaningless words as he tried to recapture the feeling of sleep, but it was gone. The cold ground beneath him wasn’t even beginning to warm up in the distant Colorado sun, and the breeze that quietly blew past was chilly. He must have imagined it. That, or some random forest noise had woken him. Dream’s tent flaps were still zipped shut. He could see that from where he was laying. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when he had drifted off last night, but it had been during his pondering. He’d have to be more careful to make sure he was safely inside the tent whenever they stopped to camp. There really weren’t many dangers out here, but it was better safe than sorry. 

Then Sapnap heard it again. A hushed whisper, a crinkle of footsteps on dead leaves and fallen pine needles. He scrambled to push himself up from his comfortable lay and swung his head around the camp, trying to see where exactly the noise had come from. His somewhat fearful gaze finally landed on a figure- no, two figures- standing behind Dream’s tent. “Hey!” Sapnap barked loudly and got to his feet, shaking off the ache of his uncomfortable sleep as quickly as possible. “Who are you?!”

His ruckus had woken Dream. His best friend ripped open the flap to his tent and threw himself out rather ungracefully, following Sapnap’s glare to the two men who were standing near their campsite. Initially he had been fearful since they were strangers, but upon seeing them in the morning sunlight, he realized that they were just campers as well. They had large backpacks slung over their shoulders, similar to their own, and were rather small guys. One was significantly taller than the other, but if there was a fight, he and Dream would win. 

“Take it easy!” The shorter of the pair called out, holding up his hands and stepping back. He seemed somewhat nervous, but not outright afraid. “We don’t mean any trouble, we’re just passing through. You guys are kind of close to the trail.”

“We need help.” The taller piped up nervously, and his friend shot him a glare. 

“Well- if you could spare us something, that would be very well appreciated.”

Sapnap’s shoulders relaxed, and he saw that Dream wasn’t so tense either now. They were just other campers, now it was solidified. For a moment his heart had been racing with fear and adrenaline. “What do you need?” He stepped closer, no longer eyeing the two as suspiciously as he had before.

“I’m sure you guys had to cross it. That river that the trail cuts across about three miles back? Well, I sort of misstepped, and fell into the deeper side of it.” The shorter one didn’t sound proud of himself. In fact, he was telling the story rather begrudgingly, and Sapnap saw Dream’s lips twitch up into an amused smile as he continued speaking. “My lighter must have slipped out of my pocket when I was getting out, because when we set up our own camp last night, we couldn’t find it. We saw the smoke over the trees and figured that other campers might help us out?” His gaze lit up hopefully as he examined the two college students.

Sapnap hesitated. He gazed at Dream. He was usually the one that made the decisions for them. It was only the matter of a lighter, they’d brought a couple extra just in case. It was a force of habit, really, for him to do so. Before his best friend could even open his mouth though, he quickly spoke up, reaching into the pocket of his heavy jacket and fishing out a small Bic lighter. “Here.” Sapnap offered, closing the distance between them as he held it out for one of the others to take. “We’ve got lots.”

“Why don’t you guys warm up for a second?” Dream poked at the dying embers with a stick. There was no point in reviving it, but they could sit around the coals before taking off once more. “If you didn’t have a fire last night, I’m sure it was a bit bitter for you.”

“Oh- oh, thank you.” The taller one sounded relieved as he quickly came close to the pit and sat down beside it, holding out his small hands to the heat and sighing in relief. His friend was a tad bit more reluctant, but was only several seconds behind him. Sapnap was the last to join the formed circle and he reached for his bag, pulling out a bag of dried fruit to munch on for a late breakfast.

“So, do we get to learn the names of our damsels?” Dream teased from where he was sitting across from Sapnap and he tried his best to not roll his eyes right in front of the pair of strangers. Honestly being his best friend was embarrassing to stick with sometimes. 

“Right- right, yes, of course. Sorry.” The British one was distracted by getting warm near the fire and he rubbed his hands together while glancing at Dream. “My name is George.” 

“I’m Karl.” The taller of the two called from where he was seated, a mere foot or two from the pulsating embers.

Sapnap opened his mouth to speak, but Dream cut in and beat him to it. “I’m Dream, and this is Sapnap.” He introduced both of them and he pressed his lips together, trying to not feel anything by it. Because it didn’t matter, it really didn’t. This stupid unspoken battle of- ugh, it wasn’t even _dominance,_ it was just trying to be _fair_ and equal, really- was probably one-sided. Dream likely had no idea that he felt this way. Sapnap lazily focused his gaze on Karl’s hands that were dangerously close to the dying fire, attempting to let go of the frustrations. It didn’t matter. _It didn’t matter._

He didn’t know when it changed, exactly. When Dream became their conjoined voice. But here they were. It had been a gradual transition from middle school into high school, when Dream moved up the societal ranks to be a ‘popular’ kid and Sapnap was just considered his weird nerdy best friend. It was scary to think that they probably wouldn’t have bonded if they met later in life. He really cared for his best friend, but it was conflicting. The tension had been growing ever thicker in the dorm room as the end of the semester had encroached upon them, and if it hadn’t been for this trip, this getaway, Sapnap wondered if he would have snapped. He’d gotten into plenty of spats with Dream before, though. He was no stranger to the irritable quips or backhanded remarks made casually when they were frustrated with one another. He was guilty of doing it too. 

“Sapnap?” A soft voice spoke. Sapnap shook his head a little and blinked as he lifted his gaze to meet the gaze of Karl, and he realized he’d been staring holes into his hands. “Hey, do you want a piece of jerky or something? That fruit won’t keep you going all day.” He offered a small strip of the dried meat and Sapnap hesitantly took it, nibbling on the corner and mumbling a gentle _‘thank you_ ’. 

It wasn’t long after that everyone collectively agreed to get up. Karl’s face was significantly more colored, almost pink from the heat of the dying fire from sitting so close. His fingers weren’t so gaunt and pale. Sapnap noticed. Maybe because he’d been staring at his thin hands a few minutes ago. His tent was pretty easy to deconstruct and it rolled up to neatly tuck into the bottom of his pack, the velcro straps holding it in firmly. The first night had been a disaster, he’d nearly broken one of the plastic poles in frustration as he attempted to put it away, but by now he was a pro at it. 

“So where are you guys headed?” Karl was reluctantly smothering the last of the fire, boredly waiting for the two friends to finish getting ready to hit the trails. It seemed as if they were all on the same trail, but it branched in a few hours and, really, there were a thousand ways that someone could walk. Sticking to the trails wasn’t exactly a requirement, lots of people went backpacking into the true wilderness. 

“Yeah, I was curious about that.” George was still sitting near the ashes from where he spoke.

“We’re going up that mountain there to see the Great Conjunction.” Dream answered, and Sapnap just nodded as he slung his heavy backpack over his shoulders. The weight was familiar at this point, and while he wasn’t a sports enthusiast like his best friend, he did his fair share of working out. This trip was also a test of stamina. “It’s, like, this once in a lifetime thing that Sap found out about months ago, and-”

“Really?” George’s gaze brightened considerably as he got to his feet a bit awkwardly, the weight on his back a far greater burden than the other twos’ were. “So are we! That’s so cool, we thought that we were the only ones out here!”

“So did we.” Sapnap chuckled at the British man’s enthusiasm and looked at Dream, wondering if he was thinking the same thing. This was supposed to be a bro’s trip, but these campers were guys too, and was there really any harm in sharing a journey? His bright green gaze met Sapnap’s and he gave a tiny nod. He turned to look at the two, who were watching them almost...expectantly. 

“You guys wouldn’t want to join us, would you?”

*

The sun was at its peak, but Sapnap was still feeling the chill of the Colorado breeze as the four walked along the trail. It had previously been narrow through the evergreen forest but now that they were gaining altitude, the trees were beginning to thin out and the path opened wide ahead. They had naturally fallen into pairs, their shoes awkwardly filling the animal tracks left behind in the cold dirt at some point. When had this land last seen rain? There wasn’t snow, oddly enough, not yet. Sapnap tilted his head back to gaze at the mountaintop looming in the distance, the peak permanently covered in a thick blanket of snow. It seemed so much closer than it was, the fact that they still had three days to go to get there was crazy. 

Dream and George were leading the way. They had been endlessly talking ever since they had set out, and from what Sapnap could see (which wasn’t much aside from backpacks and gear) they were hitting it off really well. The forest swallowed any carry that their voices had, so he’d fallen in line with Karl and decided to try and be friendly to him. 

“Do you know much about the stars?” Sapnap asked casually. It was an innocent enough question, but he meant more behind it than simple curiosity. Seeing the Big Dipper last night in the sky had genuinely piqued his interest in all of that. He wanted to know more. He wanted to understand what it all meant, and take something home with him on this journey instead of simple memories. There would be plenty of those, clearly, but it was like fate had dropped these two upon them. 

Karl was keeping pace pretty well despite being built like a bean pole. He looked over at Sapnap when he asked the question and nodded, shouldering the weight and regaining his footing when he stumbled. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do! I’m going to school to be an astronomer, actually. My professor offered extra credit to his students that would be able to witness Saturn and Jupiter’s conjunction, and I really wanted to go an extra step and beyond. I mean, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, you know? How often do you get to live through something like that?”

Karl had a good point. It was clear that he was the ‘smart’ one, and Sapnap found himself coming to enjoy his calm presence. The older one continued speaking. “George is here visiting from Brighton over in England. We’ve been friends for ages, and he’s always wanted to come to America. This was just the perfect opportunity. Once we get back, we’re going back to my dorm in North Carolina and spending a week or so there so he can experience _casual_ American life before heading back.” 

“That’s cool.” Sapnap smiled over at his companion and then looked up ahead to hear another loud bout of laughter from the pair ahead. “Dream and I, we’ve known each other since middle school, and we live together and go to the same college. He’s this big tough football guy and I want to design video games, but we get along really well. I’ll play football with him and he plays games with me, it’s not like we don’t like each others’ interests. We get along really well.” _Do we?_ A soft voice in Sapnap’s head hissed, and he mentally swatted it away. Just because he’d been frustrated the past few weeks with his best friend didn’t mean they were at odds. 

“It sounds like you two really are best friends.” Karl complimented politely. Sapnap wondered if he liked sports, or games, but he didn’t let on and just kept talking. “Let’s catch up. There’s clearly something hilarious going on that we have to hear.” The younger of the pair nodded and quickened his pace, matching Karl’s long-legged strides as they caught up to Dream and George.

“What’s going on, guys?” Sapnap called as he rounded on Dream from behind, but he had to stay a couple feet back to stay on the trail or he’d hit a tree. His friend casted him a sideways glance.

“I was just telling George about that time you-” He started, but George beside him cackled and Dream turned to look at him and laugh too, as if forgetting Sapnap was even there. He watched, the gears turning in his head, and he came to the frustrated realization that Dream was...oh, boy, he was doing it again. 

All of a sudden he was regretting letting these guys come on the trip with them.

Dream wasn’t a playboy. That wasn’t the right word. But when he felt things, he felt them _hard,_ and falling for people was something that happened a lot back home. Sapnap knew that Dream was starved for affection- some weird complex he’d developed from his father (or lack thereof) that translated itself into failed relationship after relationship as he moved too fast and unintentionally sabotaged everything for himself. Sapnap had stopped walking and Dream didn’t even notice, totally engaged in his conversation with George. 

Karl pulled up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. I’m usually the third friend left on the grass or a square behind on the sidewalk too.” He joked, attempting to lighten the mood. 

It served well to lighten Sapnap’s.

They fell back to how they were before, only this time Sapnap paid no mind to the pair ahead. 

*

The sound of rushing water ahead draws Sapnap out of his conversation with Karl. They had been talking about a video game they both shared a love for- Minecraft- and that, combined with Dream’s excited shout, effectively put a hold on their talk. 

“Don’t fall into this one!” Karl called out from the break in the treeline and George held up a middle finger from ahead, stepping carefully onto a flat, dry rock that stuck above the water. Sapnap slowly approached the bank and his gaze slid up the river, the opposite direction of the flow. He could see the winding water tuck back beyond hills, across a flat stretch at the base of a mountain, and then up into the mountain range. This was spring water. It was bound to be _freezing_ if they slipped in. Luckily, though, it seemed like the rocks that jutted out of the water formed a solid enough path to cross without getting wet. 

The sun was beginning its descent overhead as Sapnap stepped onto the flat boulder George had been on, naturally holding his arms out at his sides to avoid slipping. The water lapped up the sides as it calmly slid past. Every step was careful, and he was ever thankful that he had thick boots because there were a few rocks that would lean or give way under his weight and dip his shoes into it. He jumped from the last stepping stone onto the bank of the other side, the tiny gravel crunching under him.

“Let’s take a break and get some food into us.” Dream suggested, glancing over the group for approval. Huh. Sapnap knew if they had been alone, he would have just plopped down and started eating without asking. It seemed as if the other pair were in agreement and everyone got into a circle, shrugging off the heavy backpacks and pawing through for snacks. Sapnap sat close to Karl and playfully held out a dried piece of apricot.

“Want to trade again? That jerky you’ve got is pretty good.” He offered.

Karl nodded and held out the bag, taking the piece from Sapnap’s hand. Their fingers brushed for a moment in passing, and his breath hitched. He didn’t let himself think about it. 

The majority of the small meal was eaten in silence after that. Sapnap would occasionally glance up to look at someone, back down at his food, the gravel, up in the sky, back onto a different person. It was surreal. He’d known some people for years- mutual friends, classmates, coworkers- and he felt indifferent to them despite all the empty time spent together. Jokes were laughed at and forgotten, people came and went, he hardly missed them aside from his goodbyes in the moment. Even his family was starting to feel ever-distant. Sapnap wondered briefly if this was the beginning of an emotional rut, then as he absently swallowed down the last bite of jerky, he realized he’d been in it for a long time. 

Dream had been right. As much as he hated to admit it sometimes, his best friend had absolutely been right. Sapnap had been given this opportunity of a break, one he needed. This time was like a pause in reality, the world only existed where they did. He closed his wandering eyes and exhaled softly, hearing the sounds of the rushing water, the distant bird calls in the mountains, the wind’s quiet whistle without the interruption of trees. Every moment out here was different. When his gaze reopened to the noise of rustling, he saw Dream pushing himself to his feet, and he allowed himself a gentle smile. He was his best friend, as difficult as it was sometimes, and he felt a bit bad for his own confused emotions lashing out at Dream when it really wasn’t even his fault. Sapnap never even spoke a word about it, how could he know? The other pair of friends got up too, dusting off jeans while simultaneously rubbing palms on the rough fabric to get the bits of gravel off. They, too, somehow had more significance than the mindless day in and day out of home. It was like they were more...real. There was no money talk, no care for which books were tucked where on the shelves of the library at work, it was just casual conversation. Sapnap had learned more about Minnesota, where Karl was from, than he ever thought he would. Plus, the older student had promised to teach him about constellations when it got dark. 

He was kind of really looking forward to it.

“I’ll bet you _money_ that I can catch a fish with my bare hands.” Dream was rolling up his sleeves as he approached the water, peering through the rushing river as he stood by the bank. Sapnap couldn’t help his scoff at the thought. He’d love to see it. 

“I’ll take you up on that.” George rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a random assortment of coins. There was a penny, two dimes, and some foreign coin that Sapnap didn’t recognize. “How’s this?”

“You’re on.” Dream didn’t even look at the pathetic collection of cents and kicked off his shoes and socks, cuffing his pants before wading in. A surprised shout rang around the river and Sapnap grinned wickedly. “It’s _cold,_ holy fuck!” 

Sapnap watched as Dream continued to bitch about the temperature of the rushing water, having absolutely no intention of going in himself. He wasn’t stupid. Their clothes would have to hang dry, and the sun was well past its peak now. Darkness would be upon them in hours. Still, though, it was very amusing to watch Dream splash around uselessly in the water as he grabbed for minnows and rocks that looked like fish (and he only knew this because of the shouts of frustration when he’d jam his finger against a stone or come up with one clenched in his fist.)

“Come on.” Karl was toeing off his shoes, wincing at the feeling of the sharp gravel against his bare feet, but he was taking a few paces after George, who was joining Dream in the pointless hunt. He turned around to face Sapnap, extending a long arm his way with a friendly smile and bright eyes. 

All of a sudden it was like he didn’t care about the stupidity of hanging clothes in the night, or the inevitable cold that would plague them for hours.

Sapnap had just finished discarding his shoes and rolling his jeans up to see Karl carefully hunting in the river. The water gurgled past his ankles, just barely below the cuffs, and he could see a bit of dampness crawling up the fabric. He stepped in himself with a silent gasp, the cold spring indeed just as freezing as he would have predicted. George and Dream were shouting at each other a bit deeper in, someone accusing someone of stealing a fish and a loud splash distracted him from watching Karl hunt for a rock. 

“ _Dream!”_ George cried from where he was struggling to regain his footing, glaring at the cackling student and shaking himself out miserably. He huffed and threw himself at the taller man, pawing at his chest and attempting to shove him in, but Dream barely took a step before simply pushing George back into the deep water. 

Sapnap chuckled, shaking his head as he returned his focus onto Karl, who was closing his slim fingers over a rock beneath the shimmering water. He pulled it out and turned it over while the other watched. “Look, it’s sedimentary.” Karl mused as he looked at it, tapping his finger against the wet surface. 

Sapnap had a vague understanding of what that meant. In some science class back during middle school he was sure they had learned about the different types of rocks, but the specifics were lost on him. So he just pretended to know and nod.

No one stayed in the water for too long after that. It was practically biting cold, and George was the first to retreat to the dry safety of the land. He sat and shook miserably as he waited impatiently, and Dream soon followed, since his clothes had gotten soaked in the wrestling. He may as well have fallen in. Karl and Sapnap clambered out together, and after everyone changed what articles of clothing they needed to, backpacks were strapped on and they were hitting the road once more.

Sapnap could still feel the damp chill of the water on his skin when the breeze blew past, and he was thankful for the sparse covering of trees up ahead. The sun was beginning to set and they’d make camp soon. His stomach growled despite having eaten a bit earlier, and he noted that he’d probably burned all those calories splashing around with Karl. He wondered briefly what his family was up to, all his friends back at home. Were they finishing up Christmas decorations? Buying the last things they’d need for the big dinner? Last-minute scramble shopping, present wrapping? This would be the first year he wasn’t there for the twenty-fifth, and he didn’t feel as bad about it as he should.

That whole distance thing. 

Sapnap’s mind shifted to post-Christmas. He would be going into the second semester of his sophomore year of college. The classes only got harder from here, and while he did have a love for video games, doing all the work behind it was exhausting. His passion was dying within this rut. Assignments had been getting finished progressively closer to their due date as the winter break had approached- starting with days, reducing down to mere hours before midnight. It was hard to find the will to do well when everything else was diminishing around him and he was just figuring out how to make it to tomorrow. Sapnap already felt better way out here, though, a bit more emotionally refreshed. He breathed out slowly. He’d figure it out. He always had.

The sun had dipped below the horizon by the time Dream suggested that they stop for the night. They needed the dying sunlight to set their camp up by and to start the fire. Karl made a soft joke to George about him having lost the lighter during his tussle with the bigger student and the British man had flipped him off with the lighter held between his index and thumb. Sapnap could definitely feel the breeze more out here than last night. There wasn’t a forest around them, just a random spattering of trees. They also weren’t nearly as tall and lush with needles, and the dried leaves of the lower altitude didn’t blow up this high. The coming darkness swallowed most of the mountain ahead, but he could see how they thinned out even more overhead until the shrubs were the tallest thing to grow. 

Dinner consisted of canned food and trail mix. The heavy blue was slowly consumed more and more of the orange and purple sky until it was all that remained, twinkling with stars. The temperature dropped further, and Sapnap scooted closer to the fire with a little shudder. 

“I’m cold.” George’s voice came from the other side of the brightly burning logs. Sapnap peered through the flames and rolled his eyes when he saw Dream pawing through his bag and pulling out a heavy jacket that was much too big for George. He hesitantly wraps it around his shoulders before leaning in and resting his head on Dream’s shoulder, smiling up at him. 

Sapnap and Karl, comparatively, had a comfortable, respectful distance between them. He found himself wanting to talk to break the awkward silence that was falling over them (awkward for _him_ , anyways) and he cleared his throat before speaking. “So, Karl, you’re the master of the skies here. What’s your Zodiac sign?”

“Cancer.” Karl answered quickly without a thought, and he tilted his head up to look at the constellations that were making themselves known overhead. He slowly lifted his hand and points to the left, well above the horizon, and Sapnap pretends, once again, to understand what he’s going on about. It’s just a messy collection of dots to him. It’s beautiful, for sure, but he just nods and tilts his head.

“What about you, Sapnap?” Karl asked as he drops his hand and looked at him. He’d scooched a bit closer to point out the Cancer constellation overhead, but Sapnap thought nothing of it.

“Pisces.” He responded smoothly, having only taken a second to try and remember. The only reason he knew was because sometimes at the bar, when he presented his ID, the bartender would ask his sign to make sure he knew the birthday on it.

“Oh, yours is on full display.” Karl beamed as he gestured again, to a spattering of stars that was just above the horizon. Sapnap couldn’t make sense of it and he leaned forward, forearms across his knees, as he peered closer like it would make a difference. Karl laughed softly and closed the distance between them, resting his side against the bigger student’s and lowering his head to talk quieter. “Look.” His voice was soft. His fingertips traced up along the back of Sapnap’s arm and he gently picked up his hand, closing one eye and leaning in so that their field of vision was nearly identical. “There’s Mars, that big, bright red one. It’s tucked right into the cup of Pisces, so we follow that up…” His slim finger stretched out over Sapnap’s, folding his other fingers down so he could trace the pattern shown. “...across...and then it makes a weird triangle thing there at the end.” 

Sapnap wasn’t focused on the constellation anymore.

“I-I don’t really buy into all that Zodiac stuff.” Sapnap stammered as he pulled his arm back to himself, gently shaking off Karl’s loose grip. He could still feel the warmth of his hold, a very stark contrast to the cold kiss of the night air. “You know, it’s all just vague guessing and loose predictions.” The compatibilities and all of that…

...he’d have to remember that Karl was a Cancer, though, and see- _strictly_ for fun- how that matched with Pisces.

Sapnap slowly glanced over the little gathering of people at the fire. The newfound, bigger group felt even more fun to be a part of than if it had just been him and Dream, and it was only day one of traveling together. They still had two more days of climbing before seeing the Great Conjunction, and then about half a week of traveling down and returning back to the base site. A little smile twitched up the corner of his lip. The trip was shaping up to be all he’d hoped for and more, and it was still just the beginning. The closer they got to the peak of the mountain, the further everything else became. He realized with a startle that he hadn’t thought of his usual anxieties since after they’d splashed in the river. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so excited to be writing again, thank you guys for even coming this far!


	3. december 19, 2020

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream and Sapnap have allotted themselves one day to fuck around and have fun, and today is that day. Or rather, it will be once it gets dark and they reach their destination.

The soft, familiar sound of Sapnap’s wrist watch beeping roused him. He tucked his face into the crook of his elbow and let out a deep, protesting sigh, but he knew he could only put off getting up for so long. He had been the ‘responsible’ one thus far on their trip, always getting up first to prepare a meager breakfast for himself and Dream, and today was no different. As his consciousness slowly came trickling back with wakefulness, he remembered with a jolt that it was no longer just the two of them. A bit more energized now, Sapnap pushed himself up on his arms and stretched his hands out far in front of himself with one final, big yawn. The chill of the morning mountain air served well to chase off the last edge of sleep and once the sleeping bag fell from his chest as he stood, it was entirely gone. 

Sapnap unzipped his tent and lazily nudged the flap out of the way, not bothering to redo it up as he trotted slowly to the pulsating embers. They would have to start collecting sticks and packing firewood into their bags now, or they wouldn’t have any for the mountain peak. Heavens knew that they really needed the fire up there. The trees only grew more sparsely and shorter the higher up they got, and the frozen water in the shrubs would prove difficult to burn unless they dried them out beforehand. He cleared his throat and pulled up a short log to sit on, pulling his phone out of his pocket and lazily scrolling through his photos. This morning peace was nice. It was similar to when he stayed up late into the night, and on the day of the twenty-first he planned on watching midnight bleed into dawn, whether anyone stayed up with him or not. Sapnap let out a soft huff through his nose and rested his thumb on the screen when he landed on a photo of himself and Dream on the plane, both grinning like idiots holding up their index and middle fingers for a peace sign. Then when he slid it to the left, it was only their middle fingers. 

“You know, I saw a bag of jerky in your backpack last night when we were getting dinner together.” A soft voice came from behind him and Sapnap instinctively lowered the phone and turned around to see Karl pushing from his own tent. It was a little sturdier and made of thicker material, he noted. “I don’t know why you insist on trading for  _ mine. _ ”

Sapnap felt a grin tug at the corner of his lips. “Well, mine is just Great Value shit. You’ve got the name-brand stuff. You know, I feel like I’m kind of ripping you off, since yours is way more expensive than mine.” 

Karl settled himself onto the ground beside Sapnap’s log and held his hands out to the hot coals. “You know, I think the nicest people are taken advantage of sometimes.” He griped playfully.

“What, are you implying that you’re nice?” Sapnap raised an eyebrow. “Because people that are actually nice don’t call themselves that.” 

“Don’t go putting words in my mouth.” Karl chuckled and casually leaned against the log without any thought. “If  _ you  _ think I’m nice, though, then I’ll take it.” 

Sapnap just rolled his eyes and briefly glanced at the sky before returning his focus onto the fire, or rather, what was left of it burning in the small dirt pit. He could feel Karl’s body heat against his leg from where he was leaning and did his best to just ignore that. He was just a titch on this side of too close, but he didn’t mind. 

The quiet settled over them like a falling blanket of snow. Sapnap didn’t feel inclined to speak though. Normally he wanted to fill silence with the sound of his own voice, but not in that moment. It was just that- quiet. He swore that he could hear Karl’s quiet breathing through the still air, over the crackle of embers and barely-there noise from the river. 

Finally, Karl did speak. “So, George and I are kind of on your guys’ time now. We had the same end goal, but…” He shrugged. “What’s the plan for today? It seems like we’ve got a lot of wiggle room as far as time goes.”

“Oh- yeah, well-” Sapnap adjusted how he was seated carefully, and uttered a very soft curse word under his breath when the taller man moved. “-today we’re actually going to follow the river that flows down the mountain, into the stream we messed around in yesterday. It winds up around the mountains there, but if we keep going up at this incline we’ll eventually hit it a few miles ahead. We’re hoping to get there when the sun starts setting or a little bit after, that gives us some extra time to get ready for tonight.”

Karl bit the prompt. “What’s tonight?”

“Dream and I really wanted to come out here prepared for fun.” Sapnap got to his feet and ducked back into his tent, rummaging through his heavy bag and finally pulling out a sleeve of shots. He held his hand out of the flap and poked his head through too, giving it a little shake. “Between the two of us we’ve got  _ four  _ of these bad boys, twelve shots of four different kinds. So if you don’t like vodka, we have whiskey, or tequila, or rum.” 

“Okay, I’m game. I know George is too.” Karl grinned and pushed himself up to his feet, dusting off his knees before stepping back towards his tent. “So why are we sticking to the river then? Won’t that take longer since it’s not a straight shot to the peak?”

“See, that’s why we’ve got that allotted wiggle room you mentioned. Alcohol is always better cold, so we’ll set up camp and set the shots in the stream to get chilled for when it gets dark.” Sapnap explained eagerly, glad that the other two travelers would be joining them for their party night. 

“Now there’s more than just you to keep me in check.” Sapnap shot his glance over to see Dream pushing through his tent, and he stifled a soft laugh. The poor guy always looked like a dead man walking when he first woke up in the mornings. His wispy blonde hair was cowlicked to hell and back, and he hadn’t even bothered with changing before emerging like a goblin from the depths of a burrow. “Jesus fuck, it’s so  _ bright  _ out here.”

“I wonder if that has something to do with the lack of trees and the thinner atmosphere.” Sapnap remarked sarcastically. “You know, I don’t want to hear about it, Dream. You’re the one who wanted to come on this trip.”

Dream looked positively puzzled as he ran a hand through his hair. “You’re the one who enabled me.”

“All I did was mention that there was a cosmic event happening several months down the line from when I first brought it up. I had no part in putting the ideas in your head.” 

George popped his head out of his own tent with a lazy yawn, clearly roused by all of the loud gabbing around the dying fire. “We need to be hitting the road soon if we want to have everything set up by the time the sun sets.” He remarked sleepily, and Dream shook his head with a fond laugh. 

“You’re the last one up, George.”

Sapnap watched the two with a hair of suspicion. George already knew the plan of linking up with the river and drinking tonight, then? Dream must have told him on the trail yesterday. He felt a bit guilty that Karl was the only one left out of the loop, but he knew now, and that was all that mattered. 

Packing up got faster every day. Sapnap was confidently out of the range of snapping the poles or ripping the fabric at this point and he hooked the Velcro straps together once it was rolled snugly underneath his backpack and hoisted it up with a grunt of effort. He snuffed out the coals with a few quick stomps and turned to face the newfound gaggle of guys, unable to stop his confident smile with a quick head tilt. “Come on, let’s hit the road.”

It was almost natural for them, at this point, to fall back into the pairs they had been in before on yesterday’s walk in the woods. The trail wasn’t narrow yet by any means but it wasn’t wide enough across for four people to stay on at once. The worn path was lined with rocks and sparse patches of thick, coarse grass, and Sapnap would occasionally kick a piece of gravel ahead and count the steps until he reached it again just to send it off once more. He was happy for Dream. He could see from miles away that he liked George. It wasn’t often that Dream put himself out there, but there must just be something about the world out here that had changed him. He could hear a sharp bark of laughter from his best friend that quickly transitioned to a wheeze, that then tapered into nothing. It had been a while since he heard that laugh.

“How many years do you have left in school?” Sapnap suddenly blurted to Karl, who had been just as quiet on the walk. The silence was a lot more awkward than it had been that morning when it was just the two of them together, alone. Granted, they were sort of on their own back here, but for some reason the shorter man felt he had to somehow compensate for all the fun that Dream and George were having.  _ And I picked the topic of school. How fun.  _

Karl glanced over and his gaze brightened considerably, clearly relieved to have something to talk about. Sapnap wondered briefly if he was feeling the same way. “I’ve got about six years left. I’m headed into my eighth semester come spring. A lot of it is math, which...admittedly, I’m not the best at. You wouldn’t believe how much  _ math  _ there is to getting to the stars.” He casted a quick glance up at the sky with dark eyes, and a smile quirked up on his lips. “Though it’s so worth it.” 

Sapnap felt a bit inferior with his passion for game design. A bit was an understatement, honestly. Karl clearly loved what he was doing, and his drive to continue on with it was admirable. He didn’t seem burned out. He’d come on this trip to expand his love, not escape from his problems. His heart gave a bitter, jealous twist but he swallowed the feeling down, and instead just continued on with the conversation. “I know you mentioned you were born and raised in Minnesota, did you fly in from there? Is that where you go to school?”

“Hm?” Karl returned his glance back down to earth, to Sapnap. “No, I’m in North Carolina right now. They have this great astronomy program at the school I go to, one of the best in the nation.”

“Isn’t living near the coast great?” Sapnap asked, desperate to keep their conversation alive. He couldn’t keep talking about school, or he’d be forcing words out of his head until it was wrung dry. At the very least, the transition question wasn’t the worst one he could have come up with. “Dream and I, we’re in Florida. That’s, like, eight hours away from you, isn’t it?” 

“Just about, I think.” Karl didn’t seem to mind the somewhat bumpy shift in topics. “Nowhere near as far as Dream and George have between them, though. He lives in England. That’s a whole ocean of distance, and they can’t even text because it’ll cost them international pricing to do so. I bet they’ve already exchanged Discords or something like that.” 

“You know, I’m surprised that we haven’t.” Sapnap’s brain was bolder than his heart, and the remark slipped out without his permission. “Here, let’s swap numbers, and Discord too. That way we can play Minecraft together when we get home.” He pulled out his phone, the stupid organ in his chest flittering like a caged bird, and he unlocked it with the quick press of numbers and opened the ‘contacts’ app before handing it over to Karl. 

Karl’s freckled face was dusted a soft pink as he carefully tapped in his name and number before giving it back to Sapnap. He noticed his username and four-digit code for Discord in the notes and nodded to himself. Smart, the request wouldn’t go through way out here with no signal if he’d been on the app. He slipped it back into his pocket. “How good are you at playing ,anyways? I mean, I want to be a game designer, so I think I’ve logged more hours than you. For  _ sure  _ I have.”

“I seriously doubt it, gamer boy.” Karl teased right back, seeming far more confident in his skills with video games. “I’ve been playing since Minecraft was released.”

“So?” Sapnap scoffed with a shake of his head. “I have too.”

“I’ll bet you all the change in my backpack that I’m better than you.” Karl dared boldly as he stepped sideways to keep smirking at Sapnap, hunching his shoulders playfully as if he were a stalking wolf. The backpack straps were hooked in his thumbs. “That’s, like, two dollars and sixty-eight cents.”

“What do you mean ‘like’? If that’s how much you have, then don’t be all bashful and pretend to guess.” Sapnap chuckled fondly and grinned up at Karl. “Listen. I’ll take you up on that. Let’s play tonight when we get drunk, whoever gets further in the game or has more valuable stuff is the better player. We get thirty minutes each. The single player mobile version should work just fine without signal, and we’ll each take a turn.” 

“Okay, you’re on.” Karl stuck his hand out after adjusting his hold on the straps with a cocky turn of his lips. Sapnap reached out and took it, giving it one firm shake before letting go.  _ Smug looks good on Karl.  _ He thought to himself with a somewhat shy smile at his back as he turned to continue along the trail. 

When his gaze landed back on the opened clearing ahead, he noticed a few things. First, the trees were really starting to thin out now. He made a mental note to mention collecting fallen branches to save for the coming nights to everyone. Second,  _ within  _ the clearing ahead was a field of wildflowers. They were about a fourth of a mile away from reaching it but he could see the colors all weaving in and out of each other as the wind blew through the flowers. Karl bounded ahead eagerly and, once they reached the field, began to pick them up from their base and place them carefully in the palm of his other hand. 

Up ahead came Dream’s loud voice that echoed around the field. “Wait a second, you’re  _ colorblind? _ ” Sapnap tilted his head curiously and gave Karl one final glance before quickening his pace to catch up to the other two travelers. 

“Yeah, I can’t really distinguish between a lot of colors. So this field, it’s kind of confusing to me.” George’s laugh was somewhat exasperated and it was obvious that he’d had this conversation many times before.

Dream didn’t seem to pick up on this. “Have you ever tried those, like, really expensive glasses that help you see color?”

“No.” George shook his head and paused, seeing that his friend Karl was lagging quite a ways behind in his search for the perfect flowers. What for, though, Sapnap had no idea. “I just haven’t really ever thought about it. I mean, this is normal for me. I still think that being out here is amazing, I can still see everything you guys do, the shades are just different.” 

“It must just be kind of a drag though, if you can’t see all the green and stuff. That’s, like, the entirety of the base of the field.” Dream kept egging on about it, and Sapnap could see George’s patience thinning. How could he miss something he’d never had, anyways? He turned to look over the field once more. There was a pungent, sweet scent that clung to the breeze from the pollen and flowers and he closed his eyes.

George continued walking on now, careful to stay on the now-thin path they would have to traverse on in single file. “At this point in my life, it’s not the colors that make moments beautiful. It’s the people.” 

That served well to shut Dream up. He didn’t have anything else to say as he brushed past Sapnap to follow behind George, but when he passed, he could have sworn he saw a blush on his face. The words really were quite touching, and Sapnap couldn’t help his own soft smile as he waited for Karl to catch up. By now the older man had gathered up quite the extensive collection of flowers varying in stem length, color, and petal styles. 

“Okay, I’ll bite.” Sapnap stepped back and reached to take a yellow dandelion from the stack in Karl’s flat palm. “What are you picking these for?” He twirled the stem in his fingers and watched the flower itself spin in the air. 

“I’m gonna make flower crowns and bracelets for us tonight.” Karl replied matter-of-factly, as if it were common knowledge. “And maybe take a few to press, I’ve got a book in here that I can put them in.”

_ Smart.  _ The shorter man remarked to himself as he bent over to begin picking flowers himself. He caught the smile on Karl’s lips in a sideways glance when he started to help, and he shook his head with the tiniest twitch of his own. 

Making their way through the field was a bit faster going once their hands were full of flowers and they didn’t stop to get more. It began to thin out as they slowly climbed higher into the mountain. Sapnap lifted his head when he heard Dream’s call from ahead. “I can see the stream!” He met Karl’s excited glance and they picked up their pace to catch up to the other two. Once at the top of the small hill, he could see it, too. It was about a mile or so away at an angle, but their timing couldn’t have been better. 

Sapnap could feel the terrain underfoot changing with every step. All before it had been grassy or just dirt, but now the soil was rocky and the patches of green were sparse, even off of the trail. He leaned down and picked up a handful of the loose dirt, carefully sifting it through his fingers until all he had left was a small collection of rocks. He pinched them with his other hand’s fingers and hurled them ahead at Dream, and grinned to himself whenever the small shower of gravel rained on his best friend.

Dream instinctively whirled around but Sapnap had moved his hands to the straps of his backpack and was walking along. He met his confused, playfully upset gaze with a raised eyebrow. “What?” He asked curiously, and he was fairly confident that he would have gotten away with his assault if Karl hadn’t laughed beside him. 

“Fuck you.” Dream flipped Sapnap off and reached down to scoop up his own handful of rocky dirt. He didn’t even bother with picking out the rocks and just threw it back at him, and Sapnap jumped backwards as best he could with his heavy backpack. The breathy laugh that escaped him felt natural, and his heart was light. It had been so long since he’d felt at ease with Dream. It had been months, actually. Every day spent holed up in that dorm made the tension grow, and he grinned at his best friend as he picked up another handful of the dirty gravel to throw right back at him. 

The two ended up having their own personal dirt fight, Sapnap smudging his dusty fingers on Dream’s cheek while he would drop a fistful of it into his hair or rub it on his once-clean shirt. The awkward weight of the backpacks made them stagger but it was all the more fun that way. Sapnap and Dream were both breathless and laughing by the time they unanimously decided to quit with the horseplay, leaving the match without a winner. They were both losers, as far as Sapnap was concerned. Dirty and sweaty and wasted their energy, but it was fun. 

“Listen!” George’s voice from ahead called, and Sapnap and Dream both turned their heads to look. Well,  _ listen,  _ rather. The sound of the small river burbling ahead made them perk up and completely abandon their skirmish, and Dream scampered ahead to catch up and look first. Sapnap walked at a slower pace beside Karl, casting him a bright grin when he continued giggling on. 

The sun was still high in the sky, having barely reached its peak now. Perfect timing. Sapnap walked alongside the edge of the tiny stream and crouched down beside it, peering through the clear water curiously. It was about a foot and a half deep, and roughly two feet across. Just then, Karl hopped over onto the other side and leaned down too, apparently trying to look at what Sapnap was seeing. He lifted his gaze and theirs met, and he felt his lips twitch up into a fond smile, mirroring the one the other student wore before glancing back down. It wasn’t rushing like the river it turned into further down the mountain, but it was certainly moving. Further up, he could see that it got covered with snow and ice. Curiously he dipped his hands into the cold water and brought it to his face, and the freezing against his tongue eliminated any taste he could have possibly gotten from it. Sapnap immediately shook his wrists and wiped them against his shirt, the wind feeling a thousand degrees colder now that they were wet. 

Sapnap rose to his feet and gazed behind them. The mountain to the left blocked a lot of the view, but back where they had come was stunning. The trail wound around the rocky terrain that slowly bled into the rolling hills of flowers, then the forest that only grew thicker with every tick his eyes moved up. There was a ranger lookout station too, and beyond what he could see, he knew there was a building where he and Dream had first set out after spending a night in a rented room to prepare. 

“Alright boys, first and foremost-” Dream set his bag down and Sapnap turned to look at him. “-let’s get these shots in the water.”

“Not it.” Sapnap touched his index finger to his nose and shook his head. “I already got my hands wet.”

“All the more reason for you to do it. I volunteer Sap.” Dream dismissed him with a smirk and pulled out the plastic-wrapped sleeves of alcohol, setting them by his feet. Sapnap stifled a sigh and slung his own backpack carefully over his shoulder and then set it down onto the rocky ground. He pawed through the contents, since he’d showed Karl the shots earlier that morning, they were on the top. He pulled them out and reached for Dream’s, scooting them over and dusting off the tiny gravel rocks that stuck to the bottom. He braced himself with a huff and then lowered his hands into the freezing stream. The initial shock made him flinch again, naturally, but he sunk his forearms into the water and hastily rearranged the rocks at the bottom so that he could nestle the shots against them safely. He withdrew them just as quickly and lunged for Dream, rubbing his hands on his face. Dream yelped and scrambled backwards while swatting at his best friend. 

“Can you two stop for five minutes?” George scolded as he got to his feet and backed up quickly once the fighting was initiated, not wanting to feel the cold droplets flying through the air. Sapnap shook his head breathlessly and backed off of his friend, dancing just out of reach as he got up.

“Yeah, Dream, we have to set up camp.” He called over in a taunting voice, tense and ready to spring away if he was lunged for. “Stop messing around.” 

“You’re the one who started it!” Dream cried in frustration and stomped his foot. “I’ll finish it later when you don’t expect it!” 

Sapnap didn’t take the threat seriously. He scoffed carelessly and slunk over to his backpack, tearing the Velcro apart to pull off his folded tent. He only took two poles from it though, and jammed them into the gravely dirt a few feet apart. He hooked a line between them and quickly tugged off his shirt. The breeze was relentlessly cold up here, and he let out an audible sound of discomfort as he quickly changed into clean clothes under thirty seconds. He wasn’t looking forward to getting his hands into that ice cold water for a third time, but he didn’t waste any time in giving the dirty fabric a quick rinse, wringing them out, and hanging them on his makeshift clotheslines. He’d fix it into his tent in a few hours once they had dried. 

The whiff of smoke made him turn to see George starting the fire. Sapnap carefully pushed his collection of flowers aside in his pack to pull out a few small sticks and offer them to help it get going. It didn’t take much to coax the young flames into a flickering, steady fire. Their tents (minus Sapnap’s, of course) were getting closer and closer every night. It had only been two now, but he didn’t say anything on it. He’d just assume the blame was on the incline. 

The sky was beginning to change overhead as the small gaggle of guys finished setting up camp. Near the sun, it was turning a soft gold and purple that slowly shifted into the coming darkness. Every time Sapnap blinked, it seemed as if the view overhead was painted a new color. He pulled out his phone, which was still over halfway alive since he hadn’t been using it, and set it on a time lapse. He rested it face-down on the ground and decided to forget about it for a little while. His gaze swung over the surroundings once again. The dips and rises of the valleys and hills casted long shadows, and the green trees were growing darker and darker the further from the sun they got in the distance. He slowly followed the surroundings to the left, and naturally his eyes slid up to the mountain peak ahead. It leveled out to be flat several miles up, but it would be steep-going from tomorrow on. The sparse snow that set in the higher they got would prove to be a challenge too. He could see a few stars peeking over the top of the peak and he realized with a startle just how quickly the day had passed them by. The seemingly endless trek through the evergreens had dragged on and on.

Maybe it had something to do with their company. 

“Sapnap!” Karl whispered sharply from behind him suddenly and he startled, drawing his right arm to his chest and whipping around to see the taller man pointing excitedly to something down the mountain. At first he only saw Dream and George by the stream, their distant voices squabbling over who was getting their hand wet in the water. But he looked past and blinked in surprise. There was an animal, its body tense and head raised tall to watch the people. The antlers on it reached out like flexing fingers of darkness against the setting sun. The tips of its fur were seemingly ablaze and it flicked an ear calmly as it regarded them. Sapnap held his breath and the moment seemed suspended in time. He felt Karl gently take his hand and lean against him with another short, excited breath. Finally, the elk slowly turned and lumbered off down the mountain. Its tail remained down, showing no signs of panic now. He let out a sigh he didn’t know he had been holding.

“Did you see that?” Karl babbled excitedly as he gave Sapnap’s arm a quick squeeze. “I’ve never seen an animal like that before! I mean yeah, deer, but that was bigger! It was cooler! And even then, I haven’t really  _ seen  _ it up close like that, it’s always been in a car or for a second when I opened the back door.”

Sapnap let out a soft laugh and turned when he heard footsteps. Dream was holding out one of the shot bottles and he took it. The plastic was still cold against his fingers and he remembered the stream with a wince. He steadied himself with a breath and then cracked the cap and tilted his head back. The taste always made him gag, it was never pleasant, but he knew better than to make a dramatic face or complain about the taste.

Because Dream would inevitably say: “ _ What the hell are you tasting it for? _ ”

` Sapnap took a seat beside the growing fire with Karl and watched the older man for a moment as he rummaged through the front pocket of his pack. He let out a soft sound of understanding when he pulled out the flowers he’d picked along the walk, and naturally reached out to take a few when they were offered. The colors weren’t nearly so vibrant, from a combination of wilting and the darkening world around them. It was still pretty, though, and he absently knocked back a shot every few minutes whenever Dream would pass one over. His fingers were slowly becoming less and less responsive as he wove the tensing stems together, and he persisted stubbornly with a bubbling laugh. Quite a few of them were in pieces on the ground, or tossed into the fire. He made sure to set aside every flower head though. He could press them, save them for...well, that was his business.

Karl, meanwhile, had been influenced to drink by George. He was a little louder in his complaints of the taste but took them anyways. Sapnap had been so focused on his own creations that when a neatly woven crown was set on his head, he lifted it quickly and glanced up to see a flash of yellow in his peripherals. Karl was beaming beside him, and he picked up his phone with a questioning glance. Sapnap gave a barely-there nod, closing his eyes against the bright flash that blinked in the coming darkness. He picked up one of his few successful bracelets and pinched two sides of it apart. “Here, give me your hand.” Sapnap requested softly, letting go with one hand and reaching out to run his fingers over Karl’s wrist briefly before guiding it closer to himself. He slipped the flowers over his knuckles and down his palm before letting go, and his dreary-laden gaze met the other’s. The soft sound of the fire crackling accompanied by their friends’ drunken laughter was all he could hear, plus the sound of his rushing heartbeat in his ears. There was a warm, blossoming feeling in his chest that expanded the longer he gazed at Karl, and his breath hitched for a second when he shifted a titch closer. 

“M-my phone.” Sapnap stammered as he quickly pushed himself to his feet, the earth spinning just as rapidly around him. He staggered back a pace or two, exhaling heavily and pressing his wrist to his head. Wow, he was well past tipsy now. When had that happened? “I-I left it recording a time lapse, and it’s- let me just-” He squinted through the shadows casted by the nearby mountain and saw his phone resting face-down on the ground, just where he had left it. He picked it up and pressed the button to stop the recording and meandered back over. Karl immediately scooched closer to tuck himself against him, but Sapnap kept his focus strictly on the screen now.

“We made a bet on who could play Minecraft better, didn’t we?” He reminded his friend with a nudge, and Karl lifted his head lazily with a shrug. “We did. I expect you to back your shit up. So come on, watch me, I’ll go first.” He loaded up the app and stuck out a leg in front of himself, feeling the warmth of the fire on his shoe and ankle. He was completely wrapped up in the game, taking all of his energy and consciousness to focus on the screen as he worked on getting as far as he possibly could in his thirty-minute world. He was quick to constantly update and fashion his tools, and had even found diamonds by the time the buzzer on Karl’s phone began to sound. 

“Hand it over.” Karl held out his hand, flat and palm-up, and Sapnap exited the game before passing it over for him to have a turn. He felt confident in his run through, and leaned over with his cheek barely pressed to his shoulder as he watched. Karl was more or less slumped entirely against him, and he could see from a mile away that he was going to win their little bet. Karl was taking way too long with thinking, pausing for dozens of seconds at a time before making a move that was stupid. After the first time the sun went down in the game, he was killed only twelve minutes in, and he handed the phone back to its owner with an exasperated sigh. “I-it’s ‘cuz I’m  _ drunk.  _ And it’s on a  _ phone.” _

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Sapnap chuckled and set it aside, then glanced up.

Wow.

Up here, the moon shone brighter than he’d ever seen it before. It was just a hair under halfway full, and all the stars to the right of it just seemed a tad bit dimmer than those to the left. He didn’t know the waxing or waning phases of it, and he wondered if it was growing bigger or getting slimmer. His gaze slowly flicked across the rest of the inky blackness, having memorized the constellations he’d learned about last night and finding the ones he could. His own star sign was still right near the middle with Mars cupped into it, but he couldn’t see Karl’s. The cosmos were practically twirling before his very eyes. 

“You know, Saturn and Jupiter have meanings too, just like the constellations.” Karl spoke softly from beside Sapnap and he glanced down slowly, meeting his curious gaze for a second before the taller student returned back to the sky. He lifted his hand and pointed a slim finger to the right of the moon, in the very corner of the view, where the two stars were nearly shining together. “They have the same symbol, but Saturn’s is upside down. They’re sort of like a yin and yang thing. Saturn is a more controlling thing, it represents dominance and change. Jupiter is more mellow, as far as intensity goes, but don’t be mistaken. Think of luck, strength, and intelligence. A less direct, obvious power than Saturn.”

“It’s incredible that you know all of this.” Sapnap breathed, absently leaning back and setting his hand flat on the ground behind Karl. He couldn’t even feel the sharp gravel poking into his skin. The two stars were so close and yet so far apart, and he briefly looked over at Dream. His best friend was far beyond wasted at this point, and he felt a bit bad that he hadn’t kept him in check. He was just so invested in Karl and the game they’d been playing. Besides, he could normally handle himself.  _ He’s kind of like Saturn.  _ Sapnap thought to himself with a curious tilt of his head. His best friend was indeed the more ‘dominant’ one, he was stubborn and in control all the time. He’d always been a constant pulling force in Sapnap’s life, taking him this way and that through friend groups, interest changes, and education. They were at the school they studied at because Dream had chosen it, and more or less expected Sapnap to just come along. He had, of course. What other choice did he have independent of his best friend? He was a great person, and he wouldn’t want anyone else to have been his friend for this long. It was exhausting, but he wouldn’t trade him for the world. They had been through so much together. 

_ So I must be Jupiter, then.  _ Sapnap thought to himself blearily as his eyes twitched ever so slightly to the side to focus on the other planet shining brightly in the sky. From here they appeared to be touching, but were still independent dots that just merged on the side. In two days they would appear as one, and they would all be on the peak. He let out a slow breath, relaxing back onto his hands all the way and shutting his eyes. The warmth of the fire and the alcohol running through his body served well to ward off the worst of the cold. He quickly blinked his gaze when he felt a warm weight on his shoulder and he looked over to see Karl. The other student was smiling carelessly overhead, comfortable in the silence that had settled around them. All thoughts of Dream quickly vacated his mind and he lifted a hand hesitantly, setting it over his thin shoulders and rubbing his thumb against his collarbone. Sapnap stole a glance over at his best friend to see if he was watching, but he seemed to be in his own discussion to the left. It was like there were three worlds- Dream and George’s, Karl and Sapnap’s, and then whatever the hell else was going on beyond the Colorado wilderness. The younger student scoffed fondly before abandoning his friend and instead settled his chin on top of Karl’s curly hair. He could catch that faint whiff of citrus and spice from whatever shampoo he used and he breathed it in deeply, keeping his eyes dutifully overhead as he tucked himself into him.

He and Dream had watched a lot of things to prepare themselves for this trip, and most recently was a movie about a week before they had left. He remembered that it was actually pretty humorous and the ending had wrapped everything up neatly.  _ A Walk in the Woods,  _ if he remembered correctly. The soundtrack had been overwhelmingly beautiful and so had the movie, even if that wasn’t the main focus.

_ “We need to watch this!” Dream called over as he flicked through his Amazon Prime movies. “I read online that it’s about two guys who take on a trail that takes months to complete, and that’s kind of like us, only it’s, like, two weeks. Please Sap,  _ **_please_ ** _? It’s not a documentary or anything!”  _

_ Sapnap sighed and settled himself back onto the couch. As if he had a choice in the matter. “Alright, I’m game. I never want to see another nature film for as long as I live though, especially after the trip. We’ll be sick of the wilderness.” _

The song in the end credits had resonated with him, specifically one stanza. He couldn’t remember who it was by or what it was called, but it had repeated in his mind over and over as he laid in bed that night, staring at the black ceiling, his brain buzzing with excitement for the trip. 

_ When we’re dead and gone, will the mountains remember? _

_ Or just carry on, moving slow as the forest grows, _

_ and turns our bones into dust? _

_ No, an untold legend is lighting up. _

The lyrics repeated themselves in his mind once again. Around the fire, everyone had slowly grown silent as the alcohol began to slowly set in and wear off over the course of the night. It couldn’t have even been past nine, but Sapnap felt incredibly drowsy. Karl was already entirely slumped against him, and he glanced down briefly to see the top of his head. This was their story. It wouldn’t die out here in the wild. He would make sure of that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "The Birds Are Singing At Night" is the name of the song, and Lord Huron is the band behind the masterpiece of lyrics. All of your comments mean so much to me, and so many of you have bookmarked it, I'm in shock! Thank you all, I really appreciate it ;u;


	4. december 20, 2020

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On their journey to the peak, the boys run into a relatively serious setback.

“Watch your step!” George called from where he was leading the way along a somewhat narrow trail, and Sapnap kept his glance solidly down at his feet. His thumbs were hooked in the straps of his backpack but his other fingers were splayed, ready to fly out and catch himself if need be. The path was wide enough to warrant concern, but not quite the level that George was emitting. Ahead of him was Dream, and behind him Karl. They weren’t able to walk side by side anymore, but the mouth of the trail opened up ahead, he could see that from where he peered from behind his best friend and one of their relatively newfound companions.

“Do you think a tumble from this height could kill you?” Dream ventured curiously as he poked his head over the edge of the steep dropoff. Sapnap mirrored him and tilted his face a little to gaze at the vast surroundings below. It was only a five foot drop or so, and the incline wasn’t too sheer, but it would definitely knock one’s breath away. Plus, the hill that bled down into the mountainside below would give someone a good roll too, provided they had enough momentum.

“Mmm, maybe.” Sapnap hummed out as he erred on the side of caution and trailed next to the rock wall beside him. It was always better to nip Dream’s ridiculous thoughts in the bud before he decided to test them. In this case, he was hopefully keeping his best friend from curiously throwing himself off of a mountainside for shits and giggles (as funny as that would be to see, anyways, after making sure he was okay.)

“ _ No,  _ you’d be fine. Maybe a bit banged up, but fine.” George argued back as he glanced at the others, swinging his right foot around and walking backwards a few paces.

“Who died and made you the mountain climbing expert, are you secretly a goat?” Karl called from behind Sapnap and he chuckled softly. 

George frowned and displayed his disgruntlement audibly. “Again,  _ no.  _ It’s just kind of common sense that you wouldn’t die if you fell a few feet. Back when I was a kid, I would jump from my parents’ deck with plastic bags on my arms and pretend to have wings. I never broke an arm or anything.” 

Sapnap had to give him credit for that. Kids were seemingly invincible. He’d been a pretty rough-and-tumble child himself until about middle school, when he met Dream and really got into video games. Summers had been spent outside, as had weekends. On the rare occasion there was a snow day, he wouldn’t dare waste it inside. Even in his early twenties he felt so much more fragile than in his youth and adolescence, and he absently shook his foot to get a rock out of the treads of his shoe as they continued along. 

“There’s a difference between messing around in a backyard and climbing mountains.” Karl pointed out stubbornly behind him, and George’s expression crossed from vaguely amused to mildly annoyed. 

“I’m aware of that, Karl Jacobs, thank you. I was just making a point that-!” George’s voice suddenly got cut short into a scream as he misstepped in his backwards walking, and vanished from view.

“Holy  _ shit,  _ George!” Dream yelped as he dove forward, immediately throwing his heavy backpack on the trail beforehand and carefully sliding down the steep rock face. Sapnap didn’t waste any time in discarding his own and peered anxiously over the ledge. He could see George struggling to sit upright, and his hands were scraped and bleeding. There was a long tear down his pant leg too, from his shin to his ankle. 

“George, are you- is he okay?” Karl called worriedly from beside him, but he stayed back a few inches, still wearing his bag over his back.

“I-I’m fine.” George ran a shaky hand through his hair and quickly winced, drawing it down to stare at the bloody streaks on his skin. “I think that answers our question, though.  _ And  _ proves I’m the winner.” He attempted to joke and make light of the situation, and Sapnap had to admit, it brought a little smile to his face. His worry died down immensely.

Dream didn’t seem so easily convinced, though. He crouched down beside George and tore off the velcro of his fingerless gloves, nestling the leather onto his much smaller hand and firmly pressing so the strips would fasten together. “My bag has a first-aid kit in it. Here, give me yours.” He didn’t wait for any protest and helped the other shrug off the backpack, hoisting it onto his own shoulders before standing up. “Sap, you’ve got some rope, haven’t you? Can you throw some down here and tie the other end to...to a rock, or a tree branch, or something?”

Sapnap didn’t respond verbally but he ducked away from the edge of the ledge and pawed through his bag, pulling out the lengthy rope with a soft noise of triumph. He wound one end around a measly tree branch poking out from the rock face behind him and threw the other down, making sure to hold onto it to help drag them up too. Karl came up beside him and placed his hands on it too, ready to help however he could.

“Okay, George, I’ll be right behind you. Those gloves should keep your hands from scratching on the rope too badly.” Sapnap could hear Dream’s voice over the ledge and he braced himself, shoes digging into the gravely trail below as he felt weight quickly but gradually increase on the other side of the woven threads. He stepped back slowly while simultaneously pulling up, and the moment that he could see George’s head pop up, he gestured to Karl with a nod and his friend lunged forward to pull him up and over.

Dream didn’t need nearly so much help getting back onto the path and Sapnap offered his hand, feeling his fingers clasp around his wrist as he accepted the help up. He gave his best friend a quick nod of appreciation and Sapnap felt the briefest flast of pride before going to Dream’s backpack and rummaging around in it for the first aid kit. George was sitting against the rock wall while pulling up his pant leg, alternating between tugging down the fingerless gloves, back and forth, to keep the leather from creeping up on his fingers.

“Shit, that looks like it smarts.” Dream winced sympathetically as he crouched down beside George, running his fingers up his shin and tilting his head as he looked at his ankle. “How badly does it hurt?”

“Mm- I’d say a six or seven out of ten.” George admitted honestly as he sat upright and glanced over at Sapnap, who was approaching them with the kit. The tall student leaned down and got onto his knees beside Dream, but quickly drew his hands back when his friend reached for it with a mildly irritated glance. 

“Maybe we should just stop for today.” Dream suggested, sounding a bit nervous. “I mean, your ankle could be broken, and I’m sure you’ll be aching if you keep walking on it all day regardless.”

“What?” Sapnap couldn’t help the hint of irritability in his voice. Sure, it had been a bit of a rough tumble, but their companion wasn’t too bothered. At least, if he was, he wasn’t letting on. “Tomorrow is the twenty-first, Dream, we have to keep moving. It’s probably just a sprain.”

“Guys-” George’s voice cut in, but neither friend cared to interrupt their bickering to listen.

“He’s  _ hurt,  _ you asshole, and we don’t know what’s wrong!” Dream quipped with a glare, and Sapnap felt another wave of frustration. He looked at the injured traveler and crossed his arms, trying his best to not feel these things towards him, but some of it leaked out.

“Why didn’t you watch where you were going? You were the one rambling about safety and how falling off of cliffs isn’t a good idea.” Sapnap growled softly, shaking his head.

“Dude, back  _ off.  _ It wasn’t his fault.” Dream rose up protectively and Sapnap scoffed, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, but didn’t do a very good job of it. It was at times like this when it really didn’t seem worth it to be his best friend, if he could even call himself that. Things would be getting along fine and then Dream would obsess over someone new he found, and as much as he really liked Karl, they really shouldn’t have let them come along. It wasn’t worth it, Sapnap remarked bitterly to himself. They- specifically George- were ruining this trip. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking of his problems and shit, he came out here to escape it all, and now Dream’s commitment issues and flaky friendship were slapping him in the face.

Somewhere inside, Sapnap also knew that wasn’t true. Dream was his best friend, He always had been. It was an insecurity of his own that he just struggled with shaking, but it was  _ hard  _ when this pattern repeated itself over and over again, spanning across their years of friendship. 

“Here.” Karl’s voice sounded from behind Sapnap, interrupting their spat, and he turned to see him holding a chunk of ice from the frozen stream trickling nearby down the mountain. The taller man crouched down beside his friend and broke off a smaller piece, setting it on his swelling ankle with a sympathetic sigh. “There’s really not much we can do here. Let’s patch up his hands and give it half an hour or so.”

That, at least, was a more agreeable plan, and it wasn’t one Dream had come up with, so Sapnap supposed he could find himself okay with it. He didn’t respond verbally and just shoved up to his feet, stalking back to his own discarded backpack and lifting it up with a sharp huff of effort. He didn’t care what Dream decided to do, although he could practically feel him fawning over George from over here. He bitterly stood upright and glared over the vast forest below, as if it were the trees’ fault this had happened. This was just  _ great.  _ The peak was only about five or six brisk miles away, and it was already well into the afternoon. He did feel a bit bad for more or less shoving George into action when he was likely hurting fairly bad, but at the same time, their end goal was jeopardized and he was stressed about it. Plus, Dream’s entitled attitude was serving well to piss him off too.

Sapnap set his bag back down as he got comfortable at the edge of the trail, his legs hanging over the precarious edge. He heard the soft rustle of fabric behind himself and glanced just in time to feel a breeze as Karl seated himself beside him. “What, did he chase you away?” The shorter man remarked drily, more of a remark than a question. 

Karl shrugged and mirrored his actions, swinging his legs on the steep cliff and kicking them for a second. “It seems best to just stay out of his way.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” Sapnap groaned and leaned back on his hands, staring at the sky in exasperation. “He’s always like this. It’s- it’s not just  _ this,  _ he’s just so stubborn and annoying. Dream always has to be right, and it’s always about  _ his  _ best, not anyone else’s.” He drew one leg up to his chest and linked his fingers together in front of it, keeping his frustrated gaze ahead over the horizon. 

“Really?” Karl hummed thoughtfully, not sounding anywhere near as invested as Sapnap would have liked.

“ _ Yes.  _ It’s not about what’s best for George. It’s never about what’s best for anyone but Dream. Dream’s best is all that matters.” Sapnap tacked on bitterly as he glanced back over his shoulder at the other two travelers. George was hoisted up against the cliff face and Dream was tenderly wiping his hands off with an antibacterial wipe, saying something to him that he couldn’t hear over the distance. The fingerless gloves he always donned that he’d made him wear were on the ground beside them.

“Have you ever said anything about it to him?” Karl asked curiously, propping his wrist up on his own folded up leg with a tilt of his head. 

“Of course I have, yeah.” Sapnap shot back, he didn’t intend to sound so upset about it, but his emotions were on full display. 

“Have you, though?” Karl pressed. “Because if you do what you just did every time, Dream has no idea.”

Sapnap felt himself tensing, gearing up to be upset quickly at what Karl said to him. But he was different from Dream, he couldn’t just get frustrated and snap. He had to be a touch more sensitive with him. So he refocused his attention onto the forest far below, absently tapping his heel against the rock below his feet and trying to think of what to say back. He struggled to find the words for a minute.

“It just feels like he doesn’t even listen anyways…” Sapnap finally grumbled out. Karl was waiting patiently beside him for him to speak, and he sat up a little bit more when he did.

“Do  _ you  _ ever listen to  _ him _ ?” The older student asked softly.

“Well...I mean, yeah…” Sapnap responded naturally, defensively. But he knew Karl wasn’t coming to attack him, that wasn’t the intent behind his question. He hesitated. Because...did he actually listen to Dream? It was instinct by this point in their friendship to gear up for an argument whenever they disagreed on the slightest thing.  _ Shit.  _ Karl had a point, as much as he hated to admit it.

The corner of Karl’s lip twitched up into a fond smile, a knowing one at that. “Come on back, we’ll help split up George’s stuff to carry and get going. It looked like just a sprain, and he probably feels better by now with Dream doting like he is.” He pushed himself up to stand and offered a hand to Sapnap. The younger student gazed at it for a long moment before glancing up and meeting his soft eyes. He reached his own arm up and gripped onto his wrist before pulling himself up to his feet with his help, and gave Karl the gentlest nudge before brushing past him and walking back over to Dream and George.

_ We did allow for extra wriggle room with time just in case something like this happened.  _ Sapnap reasoned with himself, trying to keep the level head he’d had a minute ago while talking to Karl.  _ We’ll be able to make it to the peak by nightfall tomorrow. There’s still over twenty-four hours left.  _ He lifted his head to see Dream staring back at him. He noticed that his best friend’s shoulders were tense, as if he were gearing himself up for another fight, and a pang of guilt shot through him. This wasn’t as one-sided as he’d always thought. Normally he would resume the harsh bickering but not this time. He kept his mouth shut and crouched down, examining George’s ankle for a second. The ice had probably stopped the worst of the swelling and it was bruising, but luckily, it probably wasn’t broken.

“Karl had an idea.” Sapnap started patiently, not looking over. “We should split up George’s stuff if he’s ready to move, and let you two lead the way again like you have been. We should see how far we can get, because I’m sure between us having extra weight and his injury, we won’t cross nearly as many miles as we would normally.” He finally stole a glance at his best friend, who was gazing worriedly from him to George.

“...okay. Yeah, you’re right.” Dream lifted his head and sighed, packing up the first-aid kit and zipping it shut. 

“I think I can make it.” George agreed as he rolled down his torn pant leg and eased himself to his knees. Dream rose up and helped him stand, and Sapnap noticed that he seemed far more concerned about the injury than the owner of it himself. And...he had to admit, it was a bit sweet that he cared so much. He’d been on the receiving end of Dream’s affectionate worry when he’d get bullied in their formative years. George, at least, didn’t seem particularly worried, and he didn’t let the babying get to his head. 

It didn’t take long after that to finish splitting up George’s backpack and divide it between the three of them. Sapnap took on most of the weight, since Dream would be helping George limp along and he was stronger than Karl. Sapnap fell in line between the two of them now that the trail widened enough to allow the pairs to walk side by side, sighing under his breath and hoisting the extra weight with only a bit of grief.

*

George had been getting steadily slower. Sapnap didn’t urge him along though, seeing him wince with every step but continuing on for the sake of their journey. It was getting to a point, though, where they would have to consider stopping. It would be more worth it to rest up and let his sprain sit. The peak was only about two or three miles up now, and Sapnap felt confident that they could reach it by sunset tomorrow.

“I think we should take a break.” Dream suggested casually as he glanced back at the other two, and Karl immediately dropped his heavier backpack with a relieved sigh. Sapnap had a feeling that they wouldn’t be moving till dawn tomorrow, and he took a seat perched on his backpack while looking around. There were no trees to be found, but that morning they’d smartened up and grabbed enough twigs and small branches and logs to start a fire. Since they would only spend one more day up here before their descent the day after tomorrow, they didn’t need a whole lot. Between the four of them (or three, rather, since George’s backpack was empty), they had enough to last comfortably. 

“I’ll check out George’s ankle.” Karl offered as he made his way over to his friend, grabbing the first-aid kit from the top of Dream’s bag and sitting beside him. Dream helped lower George onto the ground and stepped back to sit beside Sapnap, concern written across his features.

Sapnap gave his shoulder a friendly nudge. “You’re a simp, you know that?” He asked with a raised eyebrow, clearly teasing him now. He wasn’t going to allow them to descend into fighting again. Besides, it was actually kind of sweet how much Dream cared. It was rare to see him be this soft on someone, and he had to admit that Dream wasn’t being nearly so careless with George as he had others in the past. 

“Shut up.” Dream grumbled back and dragged his finger through the rocky dirt below. “It’s not like you aren’t either.”

“What are you talking about?” Sapnap chuckled with a shake of his head. “I’m not over here enabling an ‘invalid’ with a  _ sprained ankle. _ ” He made finger quotes to emphasize his point.

“No, maybe not, but you are soft for Karl.” Dream shot back with a grin of his own. Sapnap felt himself stiffen anxiously, and he shook his head, but his friend cut in before he could speak. “Don’t try to deny it, either. I’ve seen the way you look at him. When we were at the river the day before yesterday, you looked so stupid with your mouth hanging open after him. And don’t even get me started on that stargazing shit you two do.” 

“We- that’s just- he’s an  _ astrology  _ major, of course I’m going to let him geek out to me!” Sapnap protested quickly, his face heating up as he turned to look at said man in question. Karl was unwrapping the bandages from around George’s palms, and he seemed satisfied with the state of the scrapes, because he just wiped them off again before tying them around his hands once more.

“You’re into video game design and I don’t see you explaining how Minecraft works every time you open your phone.” Dream pointed out modestly. “Just make sure that you’re careful. Karl, he’s got-”

“Dream!” George called over, interrupting the two of them. Sapnap was curious now, though, about what his best friend was about to say. He let it drop for now though, seeing as he got up and meandered over to his injured companion. “Dream, I don’t know if I can keep walking today.” 

“That’s fine.” Sapnap spoke up first, getting up as well. “We covered enough distance for today, and the sun will be setting soon anyways. Karl and I can get camp set up, and you can finish checking out George’s ankle, Dream.” His roommate nodded in agreement, and the tall student had to admit that it felt nice to be the one doing the delegating. It was easier to get along with Dream when he wasn’t trying to fight every decision, and vice versa. He pulled out his tent from his backpack first, and it only took minutes at this point to get his own set up by now. He doubted he’d ever be able to forget it after a week and a half of living out of it.

The other three tents were set up over the course of an hour, and Karl was breathing life into a small fire in front of them. George had a blanket draped over his shoulders and he was wearing one of Dream’s hoodies, Sapnap noted with an eyeroll. It was far too big for him, he was nearly swimming in fabric. At this point, it was an unspoken truth between them that the two were fond for each other. He turned his head to gaze at Dream, who was currently wrestling with the can opener and some food. He pushed himself up to his feet and picked his way over casually, reaching out and beckoning his fingers in a ‘come hither’ motion to take it from him and do it for him. 

Dream handed it over with a frustrated sigh. “I think I’m smart whenever I get my report card back, but then we come out to Colorado and I realize I’m actually pretty dumb.”

“I won’t disagree with you there.” Sapnap hummed in teasing agreement, quickly ducking back when Dream’s friendly punch came his way. He twisted the metal knob of the can opener and the tin lid slowly peeled off in even strokes of the blade. “Here. You know, you’re hopeless without me.”

“I wouldn’t say  _ hopeless.  _ Maybe...maybe a bit lost, but what can I say, we’ve been friends for ages now.” Dream scooted closer to Sapnap and offered out a plastic spoon so that they could share the can of beans. He took it with a grateful smile and absently scooped up a few, holding it between his thumb and index finger and gazing at the tiny fire that was catching onto the pathetic pile of twigs and kindling.

“I’d say hopeless.” Sapnap repeated before taking the first bite, and his gaze drifted over to Karl. His heart skipped in his chest and he was sure he looked stupidly fond in that moment. The little flames were dancing along the growing fire, throwing light onto the taller student’s face and illuminating his casual smile. 

“ _ I’m  _ the hopeless one.” Dream joked softly, and Sapnap knew he’d been caught. He, oddly enough, didn’t really care, though. It was no secret by now that he was developing feelings for Karl. He didn’t mind if Dream knew. There were a lot of factors to consider, he knew that, but...but what he felt was only growing stronger with each day they spent together. It had been three so far, but it felt like months. Without the phones to distract them, they’d talked and learned a lot about each other over the journey up the mountain. Sapnap propped his chin up on his palm and shrugged, trying to play it cool. 

“Just keep in mind what I said earlier. Or tried to, anyway.” Dream’s tone took on a soft warning, and Sapnap lifted his head a little bit to look back at him in confusion. His best friend hadn’t finished saying whatever he was when George had called him over. His expression must have said that well enough because Dream shifted awkwardly and looked ahead at the fire, taking another bite of their dinner and shaking his head.

“What?” Sapnap prodded after a moment of silence. It wasn’t normally hard to drag things out of Dream, he was like an open book. A seed of worry set itself in his gut. 

“Well, when George and I were walking, it may or may not have come up that you’re kind of a simp for Karl.” Dream started off as he set down the now-empty can. He wiped the back of his hand on his mouth and looked back at Sapnap, whose eyes were cautiously curious. “And, I mean, you do know that Karl and George don’t live together. George lives in England. Karl’s in-”

“-South Carolina, I know. What are you talking about?” Sapnap frowned softly, trying to see the point of this before Dream would have to spell it out for him.

“Maybe they should go to bed.” Dream muttered as he dropped the plastic spoon into the discarded can and Sapnap did the same, but at this point, the need to know was like a burning itch he couldn’t scratch. Why couldn’t he just say it? What was so secret that he was the only one left out of the loop? Frustration flared in him but he swallowed it down and stayed quiet, just leaning over and setting his cheek on his best friend’s shoulder while watching the little fire grow steadily. It wasn’t too long after that George decided to call it a night, claiming to want to sleep off the pain of his ankle, and Karl retired shortly after him. The pair of friends were left sitting by the firelight, which was considerably smaller than the previous nights. They had to conserve their limited resources after all, though. 

Sapnap broke the silence a few minutes after their companions had fallen silent. “Okay, spit it out. What’s so secret that we had to wait?” He tipped his chin up and looked at the stars that were slowly flicking into sight in the dark sky overhead. It was just more and more clear every night, a beautiful view he would never see anywhere else. His blood ran cold, though, and he froze at what Dream hesitantly spoke out.

“Karl’s got a boyfriend, Nick, and he lives with him in South Carolina.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm absolutely stunned at how much traction this has already picked up, and it's not even halfway done. You guys are amazing, your comments really warm my heart and I feel so honored that you'd spend an hour or two reading my writing and going out of your way to let me know, too! I apologize for slowing down on updates, life's gotten pretty rough and I found my muse slipping. I'm hopefully back on track now though.


	5. december 21, 2020

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And thus begins the final ascent.

Sapnap had stayed up well into the night, far longer than Dream, who had retired after the flames started to die down thirty minutes after the shocking revelation. He kept his chin propped up on his wrist while staring holes into the fire, turning over the newfound information again and again in his mind. He didn’t know what to feel. He and Karl had swapped countless stories in their three days of traveling together, he’d thought that some information as critical as a  _ boyfriend  _ would come up relatively early on. Especially one that he supposedly lived with in a college dorm. There was a frown permanently set on his face as he gazed ahead, lost in his own head until his eyes had finally begun to droop with a need to sleep. He reluctantly pushed himself up to his feet, his muscles aching from moving so suddenly after sitting in one spot for hours, and then lumbered off to his tent to mope some more.

And yet he shouldn’t even really feel entitled to be so negative, should he? Karl hadn’t given him any realistic reason to believe that he liked him. He was friendly, and sweet, and had a heart of gold. Anyone could see that from a mile away. But when he looked back now with this new lens of information, perhaps he really was just being nice in his compliments and fleeting touches. Sapnap nestled into his cold sleeping bag on the hard ground and attempted to finish drifting off, just wanting to forget about the night’s misadventures, but the thought kept obsessively plaguing him until the very moment he fell into a fitful sleep. 

It hardly seemed like he’d closed his eyes before they were blinking open once more. The soft sound of voices outside of his tent roused him, and Sapnap let out a deep huff of discontent as he slowly shifted in his place to look at the sloped top of his tent. The cold Colorado sun was shining down through the fabric’s tiny holes and he winced as the light hit his gaze. Every day it got brighter as they climbed higher into the atmosphere. For a few blissful moments his sleep-addled mind forgot about what he’d learned last night, until Karl’s murmured voice outside of the tent reminded him bitterly. Of course, right when he’d actually started to develop feelings for someone, they were taken. Whoever the lucky bastard was, Sapnap remarked to himself as he pushed up onto his elbows and then sat upright, had better be doing right by Karl.  _ He must not be that great if Karl doesn’t ever talk about him.  _ The jealous, obsessive thought clung onto the back of his mind as he unzipped the front of his tent and lumbered out like a hibernating bear, sleepily peering at the other travelers.

George had his injured ankle stuck out in front of himself by the pulsating coals of their fire from last night. Sapnap could see from where he stood that it was swollen and bruised, and he winced sympathetically, casting his gaze over onto Dream. His best friend had a hand over his mouth as he pondered the injury, the corner of his lip turned down into a frown. He turned his head to look at Sapnap when he emerged from his tent and stood up, looking somewhat relieved to see his roommate. “Sap.” He greeted him. “It’s gotten worse. I’m not sure what to do.” 

Sapnap bit his lip, frustrated and anxious at the same time. This was what he’d been afraid of. It seemed like everything was going wrong all at once, and he was powerless to do a single thing to stop it. He shook his head for a second as he looked over at George, who was just as concerned as he gazed back. “You can’t really walk.” Sapnap stated blatantly, and his friend shook his head no to confirm. “Okay. Dream, can...can you carry him? I bet we could leave some of our stuff down here, we don’t need all of it.” His mind was scrambling a thousand miles a minute trying to come up with a solution to their problem.

“For four miles?” Dream probably didn’t intend to quip, but Sapnap felt that familiar flare of frustration rise in him when his best friend found a qualm with his idea. “I can’t do that, Sapnap. That’s a long way.”

“Then what’s your idea?” Sapnap snapped sharply.

“I can stay.” George’s voice was soft and small from the ground, and everyone in the temporary campsite turned their gazes onto him. “I don’t want to stop you three from seeing the Great Conjunction, that’s what you came out here to do. Especially you two.” He swung his head to gaze at Sapnap first, then a lingering glance to Dream. “I wasn’t even a part of your original journey here. Nothing’s going to get me out here, I’ll be fine for a day until you guys come back.” George put on a brave smile, but Sapnap could read the anxiety in his eyes like a book.

“No.” Dream denied simply without hesitation. “It doesn’t matter if you weren’t with us from the start. You’re here now, we’re in this together.” There was a moment’s pause, and then he turned his determined gaze onto his best friend. “Sapnap.”

“Mm?” Sapnap hummed nervously.

“I’ll stay down here with George.”

“What?” He couldn’t help his startled yelp. “Dream, we came out here to do this  _ together!  _ That was the whole point of this trip, to get to the peak and see it!”  _ This isn’t the time to be playing matchmaker with a hitched guy!  _ The last bit was kept silent, obviously, but Sapnap had a thousand protests to the idea.

“Wait, wait, I think that’s a good idea.” Karl spoke up from where he was seated by the dying fire, lifting his head. “I mean, it’s not like Dream and George won’t be able to see it from here. This is still a great spot to stargaze. I really, really want to see this for my own sake and the extra credit in my class.”

Sapnap was clearly outnumbered here, he noted, as Dream nodded his head in agreement. “I’ll still see it, Sapnap. We’ll both watch.” He promised softly. There was a beat of silence, but...could he really say or do anything else? 

“I...I suppose, then...yes, alright.” Sapnap agreed begrudgingly. He couldn’t very well leave Karl to go up the mountain alone, and the taller man was clearly intent on seeing Jupiter and Saturn in the sky that night whether someone went up there with him or not. He could practically feel the anxiety leaking into his veins at the mere thought of the two of them going it alone for practically two days, between the rest of today climbing and tomorrow coming back down. 

Sapnap turned back towards his tent and began to break it down with expert speed and precision. Now that the conversation around the fire had shifted topics, he wanted to be alone for a minute. Before he was alone with Karl. His breath felt knocked out of his chest for a second as the realization began to set in on his shoulders. And yet, he had no right to feel this panicked, because thus far Karl had only ever been polite and sweet to him, right? He’d given no other implications that they were anything more than traveling companions over the past few days.  _ Get it together, Sappy, or else this is going to be hell… _

It didn’t take long for the tent to be rolled up and hooked under the velcro straps, and Sapnap hoisted it up over his shoulders. It was a relief to be carrying this weight after the added extra of George’s belongings the previous day, and he faced his small group of friends while standing tall. Dream’s gaze met his own and for a brief moment, he swore he almost saw sympathy flash in his bright green eyes. But it evaporated into that usual dry smirk he wore, and then his best friend looked over at Karl, who had been packing at the same time. 

“You know, we could leave some stuff down here and make the journey even easier. The air only gets thinner.” Karl pointed out with a nod to the peak, which was within sight. “Since George and Dream will be here, we could just throw ourselves a bone here.” 

“Mmm.” Sapnap agreed absently as he set the pack down, rummaging through it after flipping open the top. He took out a few cans of food, some plastic utensils, an extra blanket and pair of shoes, some other clothes, and anything else he could survive one night without. He had to agree, as he tugged it back onto his shoulders, the extra pounds off really would make a difference. They’d be able to reach the peak before sunset easily. 

“Well...we’ll see you guys tomorrow?” Sapnap offered up shyly as he gave his bag a final sling over his shoulder, gazing over George and Dream on the ground. It was sort of like a silent plea, but he knew deep in himself that this was happening, and he had to roll with the punches. 

“Tomorrow.” Dream agreed for the two of them, holding up his right hand in a sort of awkward farewell wave before setting it back down on George’s calf and looking back down at him. 

Karl and George exchanged their own quick farewells before the taller man turned towards Sapnap and gestured to the trail ahead. He stood taller and nodded, focusing his attention on the path and beginning to walk. They were pretty evenly matched stride for stride, they had been the past several days and it didn’t change now that they were alone. A silence settled over the pair, but it wasn’t comfortable like the second day’s walk. Sapnap wasn’t sure if it was just him, or if Karl could sense it too.

_ Should I just...stop it? I mean, if he’s dating someone, then it’s really not my place to try and get in on that. I know I’d be pissed if I was in a relationship and someone came onto my partner.  _ Sapnap thought to himself quietly, keeping his eyes ahead as the trail slowly got eaten up beneath their feet.  _ But...honestly, I could just try to give it a shot. I really like him. He doesn’t know that I know, and the worst he can say is no.  _ A twinge of guilt settled in his gut at the thought, though, because what if Karl said yes? To...to whatever Sapnap proposed? What if he went along because he felt obligated or god forbid, scared, and he regretted everything about this journey? What if they never talked again? Sapnap didn’t want a one-night-stand type of deal, and-

God, it wasn’t like anything like that was going to happen anyways! Sapnap was creating a million scenarios as fast as he could blink, and none of them were likely to happen at all. He’d shoot his shot, he’d get a no, and that would be it. The awkwardness might persist until they reunited with Dream and George, but that was tolerable. Sapnap could still enjoy the view that night, and Karl could take his pictures and do whatever else he needed to get done for his extra credit assignment. 

“You think we’ll get there before sunset?” Karl huffed out as he tilted his head up, and Sapnap quickly snapped out of his thoughts to gaze at him. He turned his face to follow where he looked. Just because the peak was in sight, and the number of miles they had to cross was fewer, the terrain was rougher. There were lots of areas where they would actually have to climb, and take it slow. Still though, they’d left in the early morning as per usual, so he had faith in the two of them.

So Sapnap nodded. “Yeah, and we should get everything all set up by the time we can settle in to watch. The tents, fire, you know.” He walked a little bit closer to Karl as the trail began to subtly narrow around them. He wasn’t sure if he should take the lead, fall back, or just stay here. 

“Are you okay?” Karl’s three-word question made his blood run cold. He was sure that his expression was as open as a book, but he swallowed thickly and kept his gaze firmly ahead. “I mean, you just seem so...nervous, today. Is it because we had to leave them? I know I’m a bit anxious myself about leaving George, but he should be safe with Dream, yeah?” Karl’s gaze was questioning, borderline  _ prying  _ as they continued on slowly.

“He’s safe, yeah. Probably more safe sitting in one spot with the oaf than running all up and down the mountainside.” Sapnap scoffed teasingly about his best friend. He was a good guy, really, but he was chaotic and messy. Plus, based on the way he’d been doting on George for a day and a half now (this whole walk, really), he was sure he’d keep him safe from any potential threat they could come up against. There really wasn’t much out here, aside from the occasional animal and the bitter cold that was sure to set in that night. 

“So what’s got you worked up?” Karl asked. 

“I dunno. Tired. It’s been a while since I slept in an actual bed, and I mean, we’re almost halfway there. There’s a long way to go still, and some people say going down is more difficult than climbing up just ‘cuz you have to watch your step more carefully. It’s easier to slip and stuff.” 

“I get that.” The taller man mused. “I’m so used to having music playing when I fall asleep that the past few days have kind of been a struggle. I had my headphones and a power bank, but by the second night, my phone was dead and so was the bank. I fell asleep while listening to what I had saved on it in my library.”

Sapnap’s cursed brain had the next words out of his mouth before he could even think to filter them. Maybe his subconscious knew what he secretly wanted to pry and ask, or hint at, at least, and he did want to know. “I’m not used to sleeping alone myself, Dream’s cat Patches usually spends the night in my room. I steal her away, but really, it’s her choice to come to me. He gets so pissed off about it.”

“Who, Dream?” The taller student let out an amused chuckle.

“Yeah. Our RA used to get genuinely concerned ‘cuz we’d start raising our voices at each other over Patches. We don’t really mean it, though.”

“That’s funny.” Karl shook his head at the mere thought. “I don’t have any pets at my dorm, I sleep alone.”

_ That  _ was interesting. Sapnap couldn’t help the way his curiosity immediately piqued. If he supposedly lived with this boyfriend of his, wouldn’t it kind of make sense for them to share a room and, consequently, a bed?  _ Calm your dick, dude, maybe they’re not  _ **_that_ ** _ close.  _ Sapnap reeled in his wandering mind. He couldn’t be suspicious. That would be detrimental to his plan.  _ Plan? What plan!? There is no plan- and there are no plans for there to  _ **_be_ ** _ a plan! _

“Don’t you share with a roommate?” Sapnap picked his way over a fallen rock in the steadily narrowing trail. “Dorms aren’t cheap.”

Karl shook his head no. Sapnap paused. “I just live in a single dorm by myself. My school’s got some  _ really  _ old buildings, and it’s really more like a studio apartment-type vibe.”

_ He’s lying about this. He’s actively lying about this.  _ Sapnap felt every beat of his heart in his chest. All of a sudden, the million-mile-an-hour thoughts he’d shoved deep down were springing right back up to the surface as if all his efforts meant nothing. He immediately began to wonder what he’d previously refused to let himself think before; all those casual touches late at night, when they’d gotten drunk and Karl had more or less passed out on his shoulder, the way he walked just a little bit too close on a wide trail. For a moment the silence suspended between them was heavy, and then he realized that he needed to speak.

“That sucks.” The two simple words escaped Sapnap, and he was very thankful that his filter had decided to kick in again, because the last thing he needed was for Karl to catch on. 

Karl hummed out a noncommittal sound, but Sapnap was painfully aware of his eyes on him as they continued upwards. He kept his own gaze fixed straight ahead, and he blamed his racing heart on the steepening incline as they approached the peak. 

It was relatively smooth-going for the next mile, but as Sapnap led the way around a bend in the trial, the pair was suddenly faced with a steep rock face. He tilted his head up to try and gauge its height. Probably five and a half, six feet. He hooked his fingers into the nooks and crannies of the cliff and began to pull himself up with a sharp huff of effort. His arms trembled with effort as he slowly but steadily went up, up, refusing to look down (even though the drop really wasn’t that far) or let himself think about it until he’d hoisted himself up over the edge. Sapnap shrugged his backpack off and laid on his stomach, reaching his arm down for Karl without question. He felt his slim fingers grip onto his wrist and he tugged backwards, digging the toes of his shoes into the rocky substrate as he pulled. He could feel Karl pulling back, and there was a moment where he was nearly up over the edge and suddenly he surged forward with a scared yelp as the edge gave out under his feet. Karl threw his other arm forward, completely trusting Sapnap to catch and save him, and the younger student had absolutely no qualms with that. He yanked sharply, breathing a silent apology as they both went staggering back. His spine, no longer protected by the thick backpack but rather a thin measly shirt and jacket, bumped harshly against the unforgiving wall behind him, and his breath was knocked out of his lungs as Karl hit against his chest, effectively squeezing the air from his body. 

Sapnap slid down the smooth rock wall with a hand over his chest, struggling to draw in a single breath, and his other hand dragged against the jagged surface.

“Oh- I’m so sorry!” Karl profusely apologized as he set a hand beside Sapnap’s head, out of breath himself as he stared at him. “Are you alright, Sap? Ouch, oh my god, I’m sorry…” He crouched down in front of the collapsing man, and reached out to set a hand briefly on his cheek. “Here, uh, let’s sit for a second. Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect the ground to just give out.”

“Karl-” Sapnap wheezed for a second, shooting him an exasperated yet fond smile. “-if you had planned that, I’d kick your fucking ass.”

Karl seemed relieved that his friend was, for the most part, unscathed. He crossed his legs in front of himself and let the hand on Sapnap’s cheek slip down onto his shoulder, and he rested it there for a long moment. The shorter student’s gaze followed it as it moved, and gave it a quizzical, anxious look before lifting his eyes to meet Karl’s. And the expression he saw there- well. All of his pretentious senses of caution and worry over the situation at hand evaporated into nothingness.

Sapnap felt the tension in the thin air practically crackling and he swallowed thickly, instinctively leaning back against the cliff face. His lips parted just slightly, his chest was still heaving from the effort exerted to yank Karl up and over the edge combined with slamming all the air out of his lungs just a heartbeat afterwards. There was a moment of silence, and then Karl drew his hand away and pushed himself into a standing position. Sapnap felt like his head was still reeling. 

“Sun’s due to set soon.” Karl mused, tilting his face up as if he could see over the edge of the next ledge. Of course, he couldn’t, but the shadows that were being casted over him indicated the position of the sun in the sky. It was well past its peak by now. He meandered over to Sapnap’s discarded backpack and lugged it over to the sitting man. He took it with a soft utterance of thanks and pulled the first strap onto his shoulder, picking his way up to his feet now that he’d caught his breath and his spinning mind.

There was no sense of urgency anymore. The campsite was within their sights, and the pair would reach it as soon as the bottom edge of the sun kissed the horizon. It was strange to see it all the way up here, with the view below spanning for likely hundreds of miles. Sapnap found it hard to keep focus on the trail ahead, his face continuously tilting towards the fields and forests below almost every other step. He was also trying desperately to distract himself from the boy beside him, who was so on-par with his walking he’d hold up his own pace or pick it up if he did. He’d practically be stepping on his shoes if Sapnap didn’t casually stick his arm out beside himself under the guise for balance, but really, if he didn’t get his space he was going to do something risky that he’d really regret. 

And then the rocky trail began to finally, finally level out as they reached the peak. Sapnap’s legs were aching from the constant incline for the past hours and he let out a deep sigh of relief. His feet were cold in his boots from the snow that was blanketing up here, and he was already regretting leaving his second blanket down with Dream and George. “You say when, Karl, and we’ll set up.” Sapnap called over to his companion, who nodded and lifted his legs high to avoid dragging in the snow and getting his pant cuffs wet. Smart, he noted to himself, and fell in line behind him despite the land opening up compared to the trails below. 

“Okay. I think this is it.” Karl had paused in front of a strange rock formation. It wasn’t a deep cave by any means, but it had an opening that dipped in several feet and would provide cover from the wind and any snow that may fall. The sky was clear, and thank god for that because tonight was the night. Sapnap set his bag gently on the ground and flipped open the top, pulling out the kindling he’d carried. It was a good thing that they’d grabbed enough branches and small logs to last them through the night, because there was nothing up here but rocks and frozen soil. Sapnap kicked away a small dusting of snow that had accumulated in their sheltered campsite and patted the ground dry with a spare shirt before beginning to arrange the branches for a fire. The thin air would prove making a fire challenging, but in about ten minutes, Sapnap had gotten flames to flicker over the kindling and catch the bark.

Karl had gotten his tent up in that time, and he’d just tied the last limb of it to a knob in the rock to secure it in place. He offered a few small logs of his own and Sapnap took them with a grateful smile, setting them to the side of the fire to use when it got low. They had to conserve their resources, after all. “You know, this is actually perfect. We can go sit on top of this thing-” Karl tapped his knuckles against the underside of the roof. “-and the sky won’t be polluted by the fire’s light or smoke. Not enough to actually affect any viewing.” 

“It’s almost like this was put here for us.” Sapnap wondered aloud softly. They could have taken any number of trails up here, the initial path they’d been following through the pine forest branched into thousands of avenues, and they had just so chosen this one to follow. It was completely desolate, save for his companion next to him, whose smile was so bright and warm it rivaled the setting sun.

“C’mon, let’s eat some dinner.” Karl invited Sapnap to sit beside him, patting the towel he’d laid out on top of the snow that hadn’t been swiped aside in his lazy kicks. He took up the offer and began to twist off the lid with his handheld can opener. 

“You know, I never want to eat beans again.” Sapnap joked playfully as he scooped up a small mouthful. “Honestly, anything canned might make me sick as soon as I eat a cheeseburger again.”

“Then you’re doomed for the end of the world.” Karl laughed openly as he took a bite from his own can, practically wiggling in place as his gaze kept darting from Sapnap to the beautiful sunset outside. He turned his face to follow where he was looking. It was like every time he blinked, the colors bled and swirled together in a new way.

“I wonder what George sees right now.” Sapnap mused thoughtfully, and then quickly corrected himself. “I mean- not their physical view, we were down there basically last night, but as far as the colors go. I can’t imagine not being able to see this.”

“Just forget about them.” Karl said softly, boldly, and Sapnap had to return his glance to him as he kept talking, almost in disbelief like he hadn’t actually processed his words. “It’s just us, at this point, I mean. Let’s ignore the world, Nick.”

“Are…” Sapnap suddenly found his ability to speak leaving him. His hand slowly lowered on the can held within his fingers, and it slipped down half an inch or so until he had the mind to stiffen his grip to keep from wasting the food. “Karl...you’re…”

“Come on.” Karl’s lips twitched up into a playful grin and he set down his dinner, whether they got back to it or not, he clearly didn’t care. He pushed himself up onto his feet and offered a hand down to Sapnap and the shorter man reached up to take it hesitantly, knowing damn well he couldn’t blame his blush on the heat from the fire. It was so small it barely reached him. “I want to watch the sunset.” 

Sapnap barely had the sense to grab their towel before rising to his own feet and following after Karl. Their fingers were intertwined as he led the way around the rock’s opening to the backside of it, where it smoothly inclined up with a sturdiness that had lasted it hundreds of thousands of years. The sun was being swallowed by the millions of trees on the horizon, halfway set by that point. The entire forest was dappled in shadows and orange, it was like the persistent green that dyed the needles was bleached and replaced by the fiery pigment. Karl tugged his friend up beside him, not seeming to care about the cold snow on his knees or hand. Sapnap followed obediently, helpless to his whims. 

Karl looked beautiful with the backdrop of the sunset behind him. His mousy brown hair was mussed from days of using dry shampoo and going unbrushed, his skin was rich with color, his chocolate eyes were alight with the dying sun’s rays seemingly captured entirely within them. Sapnap nearly slipped and scrambled to hold his wrist as he was tugged up the rock, and he hardly had it within himself to gaze past him. It was like he could physically see the sun setting.

“Lay that out.” Karl took one end of the towel, making sure the dry side was up, and Sapnap held the other as they stepped carefully to set it over the thin blanket of snow. As he settled himself cautiously atop of it, Karl had nowhere near as many withdrawals about it. He unceremoniously threw himself beside Sapnap and nestled his chin right onto his shoulder, their arms and legs pressed together as he got comfortable. Sapnap couldn’t deny the way his racing heart was begging for something-  _ anything _ \- to come from this sweet, lonely moment together. He was forgetting the world below. All that mattered was right beside him. 

Then Karl’s hand crept up and wound around his arm. Sapnap stiffened, his eyes widening just a little as he swore his heart was going to stop right there in his chest. This was it, he was going to be carried off of this mountaintop in a medical helicopter because fucking Karl would kill him with just how adorable he was being.

“Nick?” Karl asked softly into the quiet around them. Even the wind had stilled, and it was like the world was hold its breath.

“Y-yeah?” Sapnap stole a glance down at his companion, his breath catching in his chest.

“Kiss me.”

And what the hell else was Sapnap to do? He ever so gently shook Karl’s grip off of his arm and set it behind him to steady himself as his other hand came forward. Sapnap ran his fingers gently over Karl’s cheek, feeling the way he tilted his face up into it, almost like he was chasing it. He blinked slowly, nearly begging with his eyes as he slowly leaned down, and after a heartbeat’s hesitation he closed the space between their lips. The touch to his cheek slipped down to cup his jaw as he tilted Karl’s face more towards his own, his own gaze slipping closed as he lost himself in the moment. Karl’s right hand rested on his leg as the other persistently gripped onto his arm again, then ran it down his side to steady himself as he chased it, deepening it. Sapnap pressed just a little bit harder and cracked open an eye to see the beautiful man blushing darkly, clearly just as lost in their passionate kiss. 

The sun had fully dipped below the skyline when Sapnap drew back, drawing a deep breath into his lungs that he didn’t even want. He’d much rather be kissing Karl, senselessly so. The taller student was staring back up at him, the pent-up days of tension and fleeting touches coming to the surface now.

“Karl.” Sapnap whispered fondly as he leaned down to kiss him one more time, but it wasn’t nearly so drawn out. Karl’s arms came up around his neck as he embraced him, and he cradled him close after a few soft pecks.

“Nick.” Karl breathed in response when he finally drew in a short gasp.

The stars were coming out overhead. Sapnap reluctantly pulled his gaze away from the pretty boy beside him to peer at the darkening sky, and his eyes were naturally drawn to the brightest spot, which was nearly shimmering in his vision. “There it is, baby.” Sapnap leaned over and nestled his cheek into Karl’s shoulder, and he felt his head drop on top of his own as he held him. The Great Conjunction, right before his eyes. How convenient was it for Saturn and Jupiter to kiss just as he and Karl did? He felt closer to his companion than any other person in that moment, even Dream. He wanted to confess all the things he’d been feeling since they had met, to tell him secrets and hopes and dreams, to be told, and a thousand other things if only to grow closer and know him better.

The other stars began to peek out through the deep blue blanket as the oranges and pinks gave way to the darker colors. None shone as brightly as the conjoined planets, though. Sapnap naturally sought out their zodiac constellations, and was pleased when he found them with ease. “This’ll be one heck of an extra credit story to bring back home, huh?” Sapnap teased, and he felt Karl chuckle beside him.

“Please, don’t talk about home. Not right now.” Karl whispered in response, and Sapnap looked down at him. He didn’t want to think about the reality of the world waiting for them below. The whole boyfriend debacle that Karl didn’t even know he knew about, the distance between where they lived, all of the inevitable struggles they would have to face to make this work. Right now, all he wanted was to enjoy this moment they had created together, just the two of them. 

“Alright.” Sapnap promised softly and brushed back his side swept fluffy hair. “You know, you’re so pretty, Karl. I’ve wanted to tell you that since you stumbled into our camp. Everything about you is just...beautiful.”

Karl lowered his face and thumped his head into Sapnap’s shoulder with an embarrassed giggle. 

“I mean it! Hey, look at me. Your eyes are my favorite part, aside from that smile, and you’re hiding both from me now.” Sapnap demanded playfully and gently tilted Karl’s face up to gaze at his own. “I don’t even care about the stars.” He confessed softly, honestly. Aside from that initial glance, he didn’t care about the simultaneously darkening and lightening world around him as the stars and moon peeked out and the sun was completely swallowed. “All...all I care about right now is you, Karl.”

A comfortable silence settled over the pair, and Sapnap did eventually glance back at the night sky. It was cold, but he didn’t even feel it. Karl’s warmth beside him was all he needed. They spent a few slow, calm minutes like that, side by side, until Karl stretched his arms out in front of himself after freeing them from the embrace around Sapnap’s neck.

“C’mon.” Karl beamed as he drew away, sliding backwards off of the rock. His toes hit the snowy ground first and he stepped back, and Sapnap didn’t hesitate to follow. He didn’t even grab the towel. He trotted after him around their makeshift shelter and ducked into Karl’s tent. It was definitely crowded with the two of them, but in a good way. Sapnap realized that he hadn’t even bothered with his own yet, and honestly it was probably for the best because it would be a formality and a waste of effort at this point. Karl sat at the opened flaps with a thick blanket over his shoulders and he held up his arm. Sapnap easily tucked himself beneath it and set his own around the smaller man’s shoulders, holding him close to himself. Karl nestled into him, every few seconds he would adjust, until he was very nearly sitting on his lap. Sapnap allowed him to do as he pleased, occasionally pecking kisses onto the top of his messy hair, his neck, his forehead, whatever was most convenient at any given moment. 

“We’ll talk tomorrow.” Karl offered up softly, and Sapnap nodded in immediate agreement. Tonight was theirs. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am... SO sorry that it's been so long since the last update. I had to move due to an emergency situation right after I spent a weekend with my family, but here it, is a month later! My muse hasn't died at all, and I'm brimming with anticipation for what's to come. I hope you all are too. <3


	6. december 21, 2020...2.0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> * TW *  
> Mentions of abuse in a relationship, which will be returned to in the coming chapters.   
> Explicit sex
> 
> Back near the camp Karl and Sapnap left behind, Dream and George have a heart-to-heart about George's poor, emotionally-constipated friend and his struggles. One little slip of his mouth and suddenly the dynamic between the two of them flips. Dream's POV.

It was inevitably going to turn into a shit show, and Dream could call it from a thousand miles away. He had seen that panicked look in Sapnap’s eyes as they exchanged their farewells for nearly two days, and all he could offer his best friend was a sympathetic, apologetic smile and wave to send him off with Karl. What came next would have him anxious until they met up again, and it wasn’t like Dream didn’t have his own anxieties at that very moment. His heart did a spike of its own when he felt George’s hand settle on his forearm, and his fingers curled over the exposed pale skin. 

“They’ll be fine.” George reassured calmly, and Dream swung his head around to gaze at him. “Karl seems a bit absent sometimes, but I know he’s resourceful and clever. You know Sapnap too, they’re gonna be alright. So are we. There’s, like, nothing out here anyways, besides rocks and snow. Even the latter’s a bit sparse down here.”

“It’s not the terrain I’m really worried about.” Dream admitted softly. “Not when it comes to them. It’s...Sapnap. I know we’ve basically beaten the horse dead at this point, but I can’t help worrying obsessively over it. Him. Them. Plus, with what you’ve told me, it’s just...maybe we should have fought harder to keep them down here with us.”

“You and I both know by now that, nothing could stop Karl from going up to the peak.” George tilted his head towards the distant snow-covered summit, where the two of them could still see the other pair making their way further and further. It would still be quite a while until they lost sight of them. “Karl is...stubborn, is the most polite way I can put it. And maybe you’re right in saying that we should have kind of premeditated this thing a little bit more, but I doubt there’s anything we could have done. It’s simply too dangerous for him to go it alone, and he’s not stopping for anything or anyone.” 

“So...George, why does Karl think that reaching the peak is actually going to change anything? I mean, it’s really just a place like any other. It’s got a cool significance, and I’m kinda bummed we won’t make it there ourselves, but it’s not like getting there is going to cause anything to happen.” Dream couldn’t help but ask  _ why.  _ He’d learned a lot about George’s odd friend over the past several days that they’d been traveling, but not nearly as much as he’d learned about the man himself. And he was thankful for that, because he really liked George and wanted to know him better than Karl, but that didn’t mean his story wasn’t intriguing. 

George took his hand back and grimaced in pain as he slowly crossed his hurt leg over the other, propping himself up against the thick log behind his back. “You know, I don’t think I could give you an actual answer that makes sense. You know he’s not in a great living situation. He’s put so much emotional weight onto this trip, the sense of impending change is so heavy that he really and truly believes that it’ll come if he just hits the summit. It’s like wishing on stars. I haven’t had the heart to tell him that it...doesn’t work like that. He’s not going to escape his boyfriend by running away to Colorado for a few weeks on winter break. He’s gonna have to go right back to it, and I’m...I’m afraid of what’s going to happen to him, Dream. He’s been with that piece of shit since high school. He hasn’t really known a life without him, he went right from living with his parents to getting a dorm with that guy. He and Karl were even looking into leasing an apartment together next year.  _ Both  _ of their names on it. For someone that wants to escape so desperately, he sure seems to be taking the wrong, stupid steps to get out. I’ve tried to talk to him. He won’t listen. I can’t help someone that doesn’t even want to save himself. I don’t know what to do.” George rested the heel of his palm against his forehead and curled his fingers into his short hair, shaking his head a second later. “He’s helpless and hopeless, and I can’t hardly do anything but talk to him over the phone on a  _ good  _ day. Usually we just have to text over Discord.”

Dream was stunned and silent. Karl’s situation had come up a few times between them, whenever they walked far enough ahead of him and Sapnap. It never lasted more than a few minutes at a time though, so he’d been left to put together the pieces and snippets and assume. “Why?” He finally asked dumbly, a one-word response to the novel that had been suddenly plopped into his metaphorical lap. “Why can he only text?”

“Come on, Dream. You’re not stupid. Why do you think so?” George patronized.

“You know, I wasn’t hoping for that to be the answer.” Dream sighed, mirroring the action of running his fingers through his hair, stressed out for his not-so-newfound friend’s friend. “You’re serious. His boyfriend is so controlling that he can’t verbally speak to his friends? That’s so fucked, George.”

“Mmm. You’re telling me. There’s nothing more terrifying than talking to Karl and then him suddenly disconnecting from the call. I can’t do jack shit over in Europe, and the one time I did call the US police, he got so mad at me that we didn’t talk for three weeks. I guess they put on this great show for them when they got there, but after...Dream, I can’t even begin to explain how guilty I felt when I heard, when he finally got back into contact with me. That was back in June of this year. He has to constantly delete his messages.”

“Why won’t he just...leave?”

“It’s not that easy.” George sat up and uncrossed his legs carefully. “A living situation like that...it’s hard, Dream.”

“What’s so hard about just leaving?” Dream frowned. He had to be missing something here. If anyone treated him like the way Karl’s boyfriend did, he’d be gone in a heartbeat.

“Where do you think he should go?” George answered his question with another question. “With what money? Should he quit going to college there, despite being two and a half years into his eight year degree? What about his things? His work-study job? And what about what his boyfriend will do to him? He’s gotten so stuck in a position that he can’t make it on his own anymore. He’s...trapped, Dream. I’m not a believer in the thought process that another person is your savior, but he needs help to get out, and that’s not going to be able to come from me. I was able to fly in for my vacation and we took this trip to get away, and he’s been crazy obsessed with it for months now. It’s all he ever talks about. He says,’  _ Once I get to see the Great Conjunction, things are going to change. You’ll see. It’s going to be okay. _ ’ But Dream, he’s going to get on that plane and go home, right back into that dorm, right back into his shitty, horrible life. No one’s going to be able to keep him safe, from his boyfriend or himself. And I’m afraid.” His dark gaze met Dream’s, and he could see him blink back a few anxious tears.

“Hey, easy, easy…” Dream quickly got to his feet and made his way over to George’s side, putting an arm over his shoulders and rubbing over the bump on his right one. George lowered his head and tucked himself into the younger man, and Dream saw a few tears slip down his cheeks. “He…” Dream didn’t even know what to say to comfort his traveling companion. He didn’t exactly understand Karl’s struggles, but he could tell that they were genuine, and George was terrified for him.

“It’s so hard to be so helpless, Dream.” George whispered softly into his shirt. “I can’t do a damn thing. Every time I’ve come up with a suggestion, or taken an action like when I called the cops, it just seems to make everything worse. Karl gets defensive, and I know it’s because he’s scared of something going wrong, of the change turning out to be negative...but...at this point, whatever steps he takes towards healing are inevitably going to hurt. He’s isolated himself completely from his family back in Minnesota, and I know he doesn’t have any friends on campus. Not anyone who sticks around for longer than a semester, since they’d share a class or whatever. I’m scared for him. I’ve been dreading this trip, and...when you and Sapnap ran into us, it was almost like a blessing. We hiked for the first few days in silence. But now he’s back to being his bubbly, happy self that I knew before he met his boyfriend, way back when we first became friends. He’s goofy and stupid and I...I haven’t seen him so…”

Dream stayed silent, his hand slipping back to rub George’s back now. He hummed sympathetically to show that he was still listening. All he’d ever known Karl to be was that cute, bouncing mess of a guy. He would have never suspected that he was living in a troubled home. “He should almost come with a warning label, huh? I did tell Sapnap that he had a boyfriend last night.”

George was quiet for a second. “You did?” He asked softly.

“Yeah.” Dream paused. “Is that bad?”

“No. Well...maybe. I don’t know. I know that Karl really likes him.” George fretted. “And this whole mess is going to get even more muddy because I  _ know  _ Karl’s not gonna tell him anything, he’s probably going to lie. He’s going to drag him into his fucked-up life and everyone’s going to get hurt. The moment that I slipped from that ledge, I knew. I  _ knew  _ I wasn’t going to make it up to the top, and I really tried, but…” George glared at his ankle as if it were its fault this whole situation had happened. “...I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m worried about the two of them being alone.”

Dream tilted his head back to look at the snowy peak, but he’d lost sight of their two friends by now. The sun was past its highest point, although he had no way of accurately telling the time. His phone had died the previous night while listening to music, and he was already mourning the loss of the sound despite it being late afternoon. The days were so short sometimes though, he couldn’t know for sure.

“Maybe you should follow them.” George spoke up again, his tone just as quiet.

“What?” Dream repeated in disbelief. “I’m not leaving you here alone, George. I’m not kidding. Stop suggesting stuff. The two of them are adults. Whatever happens is what happens, and we’ll do damage control if we need to when they come down. Maybe...maybe this happened for a reason. Maybe Karl was right to have faith in that stupid star shit. I know it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just cool astrological nonsense. But the timing is more than coincidental. Sap’s been having a real rough go at it for a while now. I mean- nothing like Karl’s situation, but...he gets up later and later every day, it seems, and he’s on the fringe of just giving up on his classes. He doesn’t see the point of it all. He fights me on everything it seems, even if it’s just what cereal we want at the grocery store. I suggest one, he gets pissed off. I offer to buy my own, he throws a fit because he doesn’t want us to waste our agreed upon money for the store. It’s so stupid. He was so flaky about coming on this trip, every week he’d change his mind. I didn’t think we’d make it to the airport.”

“And we just sent two loose cannons up the mountain to spend a day and a half alone.” George mused, cringing. “Some best friends we are.”

Dream stretched his legs out in front of himself, letting their knees touch. “It’s bullshit.” He agreed. “But what the hell else are we supposed to do about it? I just hope they don’t, like, fuck or anything. Sap needs to get laid, but not with Karl. Oh my God, not with Karl. That’d really make a whole big mess, and...and it’s hard enough picking up after Sapnap’s emotions as it is. I don’t even want to imagine how insufferable he’ll be if they really fall in love out here.”

“The real world is indifferent to their feelings.” George agreed in a hurt voice. “Out here, it’s...different. You know? It’s almost romantic, to be surrounded by the woods and the mountains. There’s no phones, no classes, no distractions. You just...experience people, in their truest form. You get to know them without the barriers of everyday life. Like...I feel closer to you than a lot of my friends back in England that I’ve known for years. We’ve gotten to talk about so much stuff that’d never come up in everyday conversation.”

“Who would’ve thought that a person could have a favorite color when they can only see, like, three shades, and they’re all boring?” Dream laughed, and quickly drew his arm back when George recoiled away to hit him. 

“Shut up! Honestly, making fun of disabled people isn’t a good quality in a person, Dream.”

“Disabled? George, you can’t see, like, three colors or something. It’s not like you’re actually blind. You’re  _ so  _ dramatic. I love it, you’re so adorable.” 

There was a sudden silence that fell over the pair. After hours of conversation that flowed like a river nonstop, the jarringly soft quiet hit like a ton of feathers. Still heavy and painful, but somehow soft. Dream bit his lip and instantly wanted to take back those last six words. He’d been doing  _ so damn well,  _ keeping his crush on George well under wraps and maintaining an appropriate, level-headed friendship with the other student on the way. He’d fallen hard and fast for the Brit, and he’d been so desperate to prove to himself that it wasn’t just the wilderness romanticising his feelings.

“Really?” George asked gently, turning to face Dream. He set one hand down on the dirt between them, and the other was suspended in the air, curled up against his chest.

Dream swallowed nervously and pushed himself back. “I...I mean...yeah. You’re...you’re cute, George. You have to know that. There’s no way you don’t. Surely you get that all the time back home.”

George let out a noncommittal, gentle sound, and he placed his other hand down in the space between them, about halfway. Dream’s heart picked up speed as his index finger rested over his own, and his breathing quickened as well.

“I don’t, actually.” George mused, his voice dropping to a deeper octave. “It’s a bit unusual for people to say things like that to each other, don’t you think?”

“Look, George, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out. Like that. Like- I mean-”

“Don’t apologize. I think it’s sweet. And I think you’re really...really stunning, too. I mean...we roll into a random camp hoping for rescue, and this really good-looking giant comes lumbering out of his tent like something straight from a dream- excuse the pun, Dream.” George laughed softly, the giggle sounding like a bell to Dream. “And then you were so  _ nice,  _ and you’re funny, and...you were right about the wilderness being romantic. I think I really just fell for you more and more every day, Clay.” 

The soft use of his real name made Dream’s face flush and he had to look away, his arm tensing when George’s fingers curled over his own boldly. He continued talking. “I was wondering if you liked me back. I...I didn’t want to fall for a moment instead of you, but I think…”

“I do like you, George.” Dream murmured as he returned his sheepish gaze onto his companion. “And you know, I’m really, really thankful that you don’t have years of emotional baggage hanging onto you. That’s a really big plus.”

“Oh, I do. We just haven’t gotten to that yet.” George teased as he leaned down just a little bit, playfully wiggling his shoulders as he swung his knee carefully over to settle between them, bringing himself ever closer to Dream. “But nothing that should get in the way right off.” He gently detangled their fingers and dragged his hand up his arm, and everywhere his fingertips brushed had goosebumps race along his skin.

“G-George.” Dream stuttered out his name. He was still sitting tensely, as if he was afraid to move. “Are- I mean- they’re not coming back down until tomorrow morning at least, we- if you want-”

“I’m miles ahead of you.” George’s voice fell to a whisper and he leaned in, his pretty dark eyes falling closed. Dream’s breath hitched again and he couldn’t help himself as he lowered himself, bringing up the hand he wasn’t propping himself up with to touch his flushed cheek and cup it. The delicate feeling of their lips brushing together elicited far more sparks in Dream than he’d ever imagined a kiss setting off. He lost himself in the feeling of it for a moment, drawing in a sharp breath through his nose just as George exhaled against him. He breathed it right in and deepened the kiss without a thought.

He felt George’s teeth softly worry at his bottom lip and he barely cracked open an eye to look at him. He looked  _ so  _ pretty, his own gaze still closed as he more or less begged for more. The younger student awkwardly shifted on his hand on the ground as he leaned forward and gently pressed the other back. George’s eyes flew open at that and their kiss finally broke apart after a moment as he reluctantly let go of Dream’s shoulder and fell back against the log he’d been resting against about half an hour ago. 

Dream chased after him, sealing their lips together in another kiss as he straddled his waist, not caring about the dull pain of the gravelly dirt pressing into his knees. One hand tangled itself into George’s short hair and tugged it back as he dragged kisses down his jawline, over his neck, feeling his racing pulse against them as he breathed him in. It was almost intoxicating to see the way his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly, and his thin lips were parted as he drew in increasingly heavier breaths. 

“Tell me to stop, George.” Dream whispered against his quickening pulse, feeling it spike even higher as he mindlessly grazed his teeth up, over his ear, his eyes fluttering shut. “Tell me to stop, or I won’t.”

“I don’t want you to.” George gasped back, and Dream bit down against that fluttering pulse when he felt his hips rut up weakly against him. He set his other hand firmly on the center of his smaller chest and sat down more directly on his waist. “Wait- just- put your leg-” George stuttered out uselessly, and Dream instantly complied, moving once more to slip one leg between the other’s. The keening whine that he let out was like music to his ears and he couldn’t help himself as he latched onto his throat once more, obsessed with marking his pale skin for his own. 

“Feels good, baby?” Dream glanced up with hooded eyes, meeting George’s desperate ones. He nodded soundlessly and reached up, gripping his wrist and dragging it down his chest to the waistline of his pants. It was all going so quickly that his head was positively spinning, but he was drowning in the sensation of George in the best way. He slipped a finger beyond the elastic and tugged it playfully as he brought his other hand up, sliding it beneath the bottom hem of his shirt and feeling just how hot his skin was under his shirt. “Fuck, you’re so pretty, George. It’s not fair.” Dream was painfully aware of how broken his voice sounded.

“Clay-” George breathed in response, his voice heavy with need. “Please- I want you to- just- quit teasing me, I need you to-”

“Easy, sweetheart, easy.” Dream soothed, surprised that he’d reduced George to a stuttering mess with just a little bit of friction and touch. Could he really say much, though? “Lift your hips up, that’s it. Help me out here.” He’d worked the button and zipper of the other’s jeans undone just as he’d hooked them on his thumbs and pulled them down. Dream reluctantly sat back and set his left hand on the ground, and he brought his right up to George’s mouth. He rested two fingers on his bottom lip and tugged it down with a slight curl of his index finger, revealing his teeth. The very teeth that had been biting at his mouth a minute or so ago.

“Fuck.” Dream breathed weakly when George’s tongue slipped out and over his fingers, watching him lather them with spit. He couldn’t help but twist his wrist and feel the soft, velvety heat of his mouth. Then he swallowed around them, and his knees were weak as the gentle suction enveloped them. George’s eyes were closed as he dragged his tongue between two fingers, swallowing harder and taking them deeper, until Dream swore that he could touch the back of his throat if he wanted to. He did. George choked for a second and pressed his lips harder together around his fingers as he struggled to breathe. “ _ Fuck. _ ” Dream repeated, reluctantly pulling his hand back but then slid a third finger into his mouth. “That’s it, baby. Show me what you’re gonna do with your mouth.”

George’s eyes fluttered open again as he clung onto Dream’s wrist, repeatedly dragging his tongue over his knuckles as he exhaled heavily through his nose. He made a soft whine when Dream reached his other hand back, wiggling his fingers past the waistband of his boxers and stroking just above his naval. He let out another muffled, keening cry when Dream continued to inch lower, lower, just on this side of not enough.

Dream finally withdrew his fingers from George’s hot mouth, and he didn’t hesitate to push them down into his boxers and generously stroke his spit-slicked hand over him. “You first though.” He promised in a husky voice, loving the way that George’s sounds could reach his ears now, without being muffled. “You’re so close already, aren’t you? I’ve hardly touched you.  _ Damn. _ ” 

George was beyond words at this point. He was continuously sinking lower on the log as he propped his good leg up, his heel digging into the dirt as he struggled to simply breathe. Dream leaned down to chase after him, pressing their lips together for another passionate kiss as he sped up the pace of his wrist. George was gripping onto his left arm with one hand, and the other was desperately carding in his wispy blonde hair, over and over again as he struggled to kiss him back. Dream insistently trapped George against the ground and swallowed down his sharp cry as his hips suddenly jerked up and he could feel the desperate heaving of his chest as he came, his free hand slipped up and under his shirt. George’s breathing was ragged and irregular as his nails dug into his arm and Dream was forced to break their kiss when the hand in his hair yanked it back. It elicited a sharp gasp from him and he could only stare as his friend’s face contorted to one of pleasure, riding out the feeling as his hips rutted into the open air. 

Dream reluctantly pulled his hand out and brought it up to his lips. He licked over his fingers, sitting back on George’s shaking knees as he smirked down at him. “Don’t look so fucked-out already, sweetheart. Up. Breathe, easy.” He wiped it on his shirt and helped his friend sit upright against the log again, loving just how flushed his cheeks were and his eyes were glazed. He relaxed just a little bit as he awkwardly sat back, keeping his legs apart. “Need a minute? That was hot, George, not gonna lie.”

George flashed Dream a tired but confident smile and he shrugged, thumping his head back against the wood. “Fucking hell, Clay. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that good before. I’ll make good on that suggestion you made earlier. Sit on the log.” George tugged his pants up hastily and drew his knees up too, flipping himself over so that he was resting on them. Dream’s jaw dropped slightly. He set his hands on the bark and pushed himself up slowly, quickly turning in place and obeying George’s request. 

“Now off. Shimmy those down.” George instructed calmly, as if they were learning how to fold origami rather than...well,  _ this.  _ Dream complied instantly, looking away for a second bashfully. Perhaps that was detrimental though, because he hardly felt a warm breath before George’s mouth was on him. 

“ _ Fuck-! _ ” Dream gasped in shock and one hand immediately shot down to tangle into his dark hair, holding on as he sank down lower. It was just like how he’d imagined when he was sucking on his fingers, except a thousand times better. He resisted the urge to rut his hips up, trying hard to be polite and as calm as possible. Dream’s tense demeanor and tight grip might betray otherwise, though. He gritted his teeth together when George began to drag his tongue along it, slowly moving up and down without issue. His hand shook as he pushed him down, and instantly felt gratified when he heard George gag and his nails dug into his thighs. He let him pull back off to breathe, but to his own surprise, he dove back down immediately, swallowing hard around him again. 

“You like that, don’t you? Holy shit, George, that’s hot.” Dream breathed in disbelief when George let out another sharp, muffled hack on him but refused to back off. He petted through his hair, no longer keeping him place but letting him do as he pleased. It wouldn’t take much longer, if he were being honest with himself. When he drew back and wrapped his hand around what wasn’t in his mouth, Dream began to lose control. He arched his feet up on his toes and rutted his hips weakly, trying desperately to keep from pushing too far, and he threw his head back with a sharp cry of George’s name as he twisted his fingers in his hair and held him  _ right there.  _ His friend had no inclination to back off, simply swallowing around him and just wincing at the taste. He stayed on as Dream continued to pant until he had to tug him up, and he immediately pulled him in for a messy kiss. He didn’t care that he could taste himself, and George had no qualms either as he sat awkwardly on his lap. 

“I changed my mind, holy fuck.  _ You  _ should come with the warning label.” Dream finally gasped out when they broke apart, swiping his tongue over his lips. “I can’t- Jesus- I need a second. Hang on.” He nudged George off of his lap and tugged his pants back up, plopping himself down right by the fire and pulling him on once more. 

George nuzzled himself right into his neck and wrapped his arms around his torso, more or less melting into Dream as he smiled against his skin. Dream could feel it on his neck, the sly curve of his lips. “You weren’t too bad yourself.” He whispered back, and Dream couldn’t help but pet through his mussed hair now that he’d been fisting so tensely just a couple minutes ago. 

“Now I’m  _ really  _ glad that Karl and Sapnap wanted to keep going alone.” Dream admitted shamelessly. If he had known this would happen the moment he and George were left by themselves, he’d have somehow found a way to isolate the two of them earlier. He was sated and boneless as he cuddled up against his friend by the dying fire they’d forgotten to stomp out. No sense in letting it die now- the darkness would be upon them soon enough anyways, and it’d need to be rekindled. 

“We still have tonight, too.” George reminded Dream softly, tracing lazy circles on his chest through his shirt as he kissed his neck absently. 

“Fiend.” Dream muttered, but tilted his head to the side to let him kiss as he pleased. “Shit, I’m really going to hate when you go back to England.”

“Let’s not think about that right now, love.” George murmured affectionately with a final soft kiss to his jaw, and then slumped against his chest. “Let’s just enjoy tonight.” 

Slowly the dusk bled into the night, and one of the first bright lights that Dream could see was the Great Conjunction. He found it hard to focus on the sky, though, because watching George stargaze was far more beautiful. His dark eyes seemed to practically reflect the galaxies overhead, and they only grew wider with wonder the more he watched.

Dream was finally ready to admit it to himself- he’d fallen in love, and he’d fallen hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, surprise chapter from Dream's POV! I finally got to slap the explicit rating on, hooray. Honestly, reading your comments on the past chapter (5) really warmed my heart, and I really, truly appreciate every single person who reads this. I've put a lot of work into it, for you all. Enjoy this shameless smut, love y'all. <3


End file.
